Shareholders of former Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis plan to sue three former executives of the company in a Netherlands court for fraud, their lawyer told AFP. Their claim is against former Fortis chairman Maurice Lippens, CEO Jean-Paul Votron and CFO Gilbert Mittler, AFP reports, and seeks damages of 10 euros per share for the period January 2008 to June 2008.
The shareholders claim that Fortis executives misled shareholders by stating that all was well. In late June, however, Fortis announced that it needed to boost its capital reserves by eight billion euros, causing Fortis shares to plummet from about 30 euros in July 2007 to just 10 euros after the cash call in June 2008.
AFP reports that “hard hit by the global financial crisis, Fortis was dismantled earlier this month, with its Dutch assets nationalised by the Netherlands government and its Belgian and Luxembourg activities sold to French bank BNP Paribas.”
Reuters has this video further discussing the shareholders’ claims:
