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According to Sirota, "Just substitute Goldman Sachs for First Jersey and Morgan Stanley for Stratton Oakmont and you have the very same manipulative unlawful conduct engaged in by the supposed "legitimate" firms but on a far larger financial scale...one CSFB IPO, VA Linux, ripped off more money from the public investor victims than all of the First Jersey and Stratton Oakmont fraudulent IPOs combined."
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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 29, 2005--The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reinstated a huge antitrust class action against the leading underwriters in America. In a landmark decision, the federal appeals panel held that the case should be remanded to Judge William Pauley of the Southern District of New York.
The antitrust class action, In Re IPO Antitrust Litigation, is related to the IPO Securities Litigation before Judge Shira Scheindlin, but includes over 800 IPOs rather than the 309 in the securities class action, plus statutory treble damages so that the Antitrust case has potentially enormous financial exposure for the defendant underwriters.
Christopher Lovell, of Lovell Stewart Halabian LLP who won a $1 billion plus victory over many of the same defendants in the NASDAQ Market Makers class action, said, "We are gratified that the federal appeals court panel ruled in our favor in a landmark decision, and will now seek to move forward."
Howard Sirota of Sirota & Sirota LLP a member of the Plaintiffs' Executive Committee in both the IPO Antitrust and IPO Securities class actions, said, "This landmark decision in our favor raises the stakes for the defendants. Using the damage estimate of Prof. Daniel Fischel of Lexecon, the world's foremost damages expert, trebling that number, plus pre-judgment interest, leads to an enormous financial exposure for the leading underwriting firms for allegedly manipulating over 800 IPOs in the 1999-2000 time period."
Sirota, who prosecuted First Jersey Securities for the NASD and later successfully represented the shareholder victims in the notorious Crazy Eddie case, uncovered the enormous alleged manipulative conspiracy and, together with Lovell, filed the historic case on March 9, 2001, alleging that hundreds of hot IPOs were manipulated by the so-called "white-shoe" underwriters very much like the Stratton Oakmont IPOs. The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission petitioned the court to file a brief opposing the public investors and agreeing with the defendants that the case should be dismissed. The SEC's amicus brief was opposed by the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department and by NY Attorney General Elliot Spitzer. "The SEC sided with the violators of the securities laws against the interests of the investing public," said Sirota.
According to Sirota, "Just substitute Goldman Sachs for First Jersey and Morgan Stanley for Stratton Oakmont and you have the very same manipulative unlawful conduct engaged in by the supposed "legitimate" firms but on a far larger financial scale...one CSFB IPO, VA Linux, ripped off more money from the public investor victims than all of the First Jersey and Stratton Oakmont fraudulent IPOs combined."
The underwriter defendants have previously settled with the SEC and NASD and the NY Attorney General, and CSFB's Frank Quattrone was convicted of federal criminal charges related to these hot IPOs. The IPO Antitrust and IPO Securities class actions will both be moving forward in federal court in New York.
Contacts
Lovell Stewart Halabian LLP
Christopher Lovell, Esq./Victor Stewart, Esq.
212-608-1900
500 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York
or
Sirota & Sirota LLP
Howard Sirota, Esq./Rachell Sirota, Esq./Saul Roffe, Esq.
212-425-9055
110 Wall Street
New York, New York
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