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Internet Initiative Japan, Inc Summary: According to a Press Release dated December 5, 2001, a complaint was filed alleging claims under Sections 11, 12 and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 and Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5. The complaint alleges that Internet Initiative Japan, Inc. and certain of its officers and directors at the time of its IPO violated the federal securities laws by issuing and selling Internet Initiative Japan ADS pursuant to the initial public offering without disclosing to investors that several of the underwriters of the IPO had solicited and received excessive and undisclosed commissions from certain investors. In exchange for the excessive commissions, the complaint alleges, defendants The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Inc. allocated Internet Initiative Japan ADS to customers at the IPO price of $23.00 per ADS. To receive the allocations (i.e., the ability to purchase ADS) at $23.00, the defendant underwriters' brokerage customers had to agree to purchase additional ADS in the aftermarket at progressively higher prices. The requirement that customers make additional purchases at progressively higher prices as the price of Internet Initiative Japan ADS rocketed upward (a practice known on Wall Street as 'laddering') was intended to (and did) drive Internet Initiative Japan's ADS price up to artificially high levels. This artificial price inflation, the complaint alleges, enabled both the defendant underwriters and their customers to reap enormous profits by buying Internet Initiative Japan ADS at the $23.00 IPO price and then selling it later for a profit at inflated aftermarket prices, which rose as high as $32.00 during its first day of trading. In the week following the Offering, the complaint alleges, the underwriter defendants' wrongful market manipulation pushed the price of Internet Initiative Japan ADS even higher, reaching an intra-day peak of $61.50 per ADS on August 13, 1999. Rather than allowing their customers to keep their profits from the IPO, the complaint alleges, the defendant underwriters required their customers to 'kick back' some of their profits in the form of secret commissions. These secret commission payments were sometimes calculated after the fact based on how much profit each investor had made from his or her IPO ADS allocation. The complaint further alleges that defendants violated the Securities Act of 1933 because the Prospectus distributed to investors and the Registration Statement filed with the SEC in order to gain regulatory approval for the Internet Initiative Japan offering contained material misstatements regarding the commissions that the underwriters would derive from the IPO and failed to disclose the additional commissions and 'laddering' scheme discussed above.
INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION:
SIC Code: 7389
Sector: Technology
Industry: Computer Services
| COMPANY/ISSUER NAME: | Internet Initiative Japan, Inc |
| COMPANY/ISSUER TICKER: | IIJI |
| COMPANY WEBSITE: | http://www.iij.ad.jp |
| FIRST IDENTIFIED COMPLAINT IN THE DATABASE | |||||||||||||||||
| Saul Kassin, et al. v. Internet Initiative Japan, Inc., et al. | |||||||||||||||||
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REFERENCE COMPLAINT | |||||||||||||||||
| In Re Internet Initiative Japan Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation | |||||||||||||||||
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| DOCUMENTS FOR THE REFERENCE COMPLAINT | |||
| Corrected Amended Class Action Complaint For Violations Of The Federal Securities Laws | |||
| Type: Complaint | Date on the document: 05/08/2002 | ||
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