Securities Docket

I’m calling it.  With not a single new addition to our once booming list in a full month, I hereby declare that the law firm Financial Crisis Practice Groups trend is dead.  Time of death: 5:40 pm, January 3, 2009.
I further order that the ”Law Firm Financial Crisis Groups Hub” graphic that was formerly on the [...]

Additional details have emerged about the alleged insider trading scheme of Wong Kwong-yu, Chairman of Gome Electrical Appliances and said to be the “richest person in China.”  In November, as discussed here, Wong was detained and questioned by police according to the Chinese press.
According to reports in China Business News and JLM Pacific Epoch, Wong [...]

In Australia, the value of securities class actions led by litigation funder IMF has tripled since 2007, increasing from $400 million in 2007 to more than $1.2 billion at the end of 2008. The Australian reports that IMF now has seven securities actions under way: Sons of Gwalia, Ion, Aircargo, Centro, Westpoint, AM Corporation [...]

Australia-based ANZ Banking Group Ltd said Tuesday that a class action filed against it by US law firm Vianale & Vianale in the SDNY over certain disclosures is “starnge” and “without foundation,” The Age reports.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday alleging that ANZ violated US securities laws by failing to adequately disclose the range of [...]

On January 6, 2008, Securities Docket will present its first webcast — a review of the most important developments in 2008, and a look ahead to 2009.  The webcast is the first of many to come on the new Securities Litigation and Enforcement Channel, and is sponsored by Innovative Discovery.
We are delighted to have several [...]

German prosecutors have launched several investigations into suspected insider trading at troubled lender Hypo Real Estate Holding AG. The AP reports that investigators are looking at the sale of large numbers of shares in the company before it first warned of troubles during the global financial crisis.
Der Spiegel reports that several ex-managers as well [...]

Calisto Tanzi, founder of Parmalat SpA, was sentenced to 10 years in prison today by a Milan judge for misleading investors about the health of the company before it collapsed in Italy’s biggest bankruptcy in 2003.  Bloomberg reports that all other defendants, including three former officials of Bank of America Corp., were [...]

The Madoff-related loss by the nationalized Dutch arm of Fortis could be €850m-€1n, Fortis Bank Nederland said yesterday.  FT Alphaville reports that Fortis Bank had been lending to funds which invested with Madoff.
The possible loss to Dutch taxpayers works out to €51-€60 (US$70-US$80) for every man, woman and child in the country, according to FT [...]

In Canada today, a key hearing will take place in the IMAX Corp. securities class action.  As reported in today’s Financial Post, the IMAX case is the first lawsuit to test amendments to the Ontario Securities Act that allow shareholders to sue directors and officers for alleged misrepresentations or omissions made in disclosure documents.
Securities Docket [...]

South Korean prosecutors asked a local court on Thursday to issue a warrant for the arrest of Taekwang CEO Park Yeon-cha on charges of tax evasion and alleged insider trading in the sale of Sejong Securities to Nonghyup.
The Korea Times reports that Park “allegedly purchased shares of Sejong Securities in 2005 before Nonghyup took over [...]