SunOpta, Inc. - Securities Class Action

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Copyright (c) 2001
Stanford Law School

SunOpta, Inc. Summary: The original complaint alleges that following the close of trading, defendants shocked investors after they published a release that revealed, for the first time, that the Company was performing well below expectations and that defendants expected to cause the Company to take a material restatement charge in the near term -- rending its prior reported financial statements and reports unreliable, false and materially misleading. SunOpta, which processes and produces organic foods, said it expected to post a profit of 12 cents to 14 cents per share for the year, citing issues within its fruit and BioProcess groups that led to pretax write-downs and provisions of $12 million to $14 million. Among problems the Company cited were inventories within the Company's Fruit Group's berry operations requiring write-down to net realizable value, whereby "preliminary estimates indicated that an adjustment in the range of $9 to $11 million for this issue and related items is necessary." Further, the Company disclosed a charge of "approximately $3 million pre-tax, related to difficulties in collecting for services and equipment provided to a customer under the terms of an existing equipment supply contract within the SunOpta BioProcess Group."

On this news, belatedly revealed on January 24, 2008, shares of SunOpta stock fell precipitously, collapsing over 40%, from a close of $9.50 per share to approximately $6.00 per share in the single trading day -- on very high trading volume of over 11.488 million shares traded.

NOTE: On January 28, 2008, the law firm of Federman & Sherwood announced that class period in its complaint was expanded to include those investors who bought or sold between May 8, 2007 to January 25, 2008.

As summarized by the Company’s Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2009, several class action lawsuits have now been consolidated into one class action with lead plaintiffs. On January 28, 2009, the Court appointed Western Washington Laborers-Employers Pension Trust and Operating Engineers Construction Industry and Miscellaneous Pension Fund (the “Pension Funds”) as the lead plaintiffs in one consolidated class action aggregating the various class action lawsuits. On April 14, 2009, the lead plaintiffs filed their consolidated and amended complaint in the US District Court in the Southern District of New York. The new complaint includes new allegations under Sections 11, 12 and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 as well as four new individual defendants, two of whom are former senior management employees (one also a former director and officer), one is a current director and chairman and one is currently a senior employee. The new complaint also added three corporate defendants namely, Cleugh’s Frozen Foods, Inc., Pacific Fruit Processors, Inc. and Organic Ingredients, Inc., former subsidiaries of the Company, and now part of the merged subsidiary, SunOpta Fruit Group, Inc.

On November 13, 2009, the plaintiffs filed a Notice of Unopposed Motion for Preliminary Approval of Settlement as well as a Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement. According to the Stipulation, the proposed settlement is in the amount of $11,250,000. The proposed settlement also includes settlement of the pending Canadian action. On February 2, 2010, the Court granted the motion to preliminarily approve the Stipulation and the Settlement. The U.S. Action is hereby certified as a class action and excludes the Canadian Class. The Settlement Fairness Hearing is set for Monday, May 17, 2010.

On May 17, 2010, the Court approved the settlement, approved the plan of allocation, and approved plaintiff’s counsel motion for attorneys’ fees and expenses. The action is now dismissed with prejudice.

INDUSTRY CLASSIFICATION:
SIC Code: 5150
Sector: Consumer Non-Cyclical
Industry: Crops

COMPANY/ISSUER NAME:	SunOpta, Inc.
COMPANY/ISSUER TICKER:	STKL
COMPANY WEBSITE:	http://www.sunopta.com

FIRST IDENTIFIED COMPLAINT IN THE DATABASE

Troy Arden Juliar, et al. v. SunOpta, Inc., et al.

COURT: S.D. New York	DOCKET NUMBER: 08-CV-00933
JUDGE NAME: Hon. Paul A. Crotty
DATE FILED: 01/28/2008	SOURCE: Notice of Filing
CLASS PERIOD START: 08/08/2007	CLASS PERIOD END: 01/25/2008
TYPE OF COMPLAINT: Complaint (Unamended and Unconsolidated)
PLAINTIFF FIRMS NAMED IN COMPLAINT:
Brodsky & Smith, LLC (former Pennysylvania) 11 Bala Avenue, Suite 39, Bala Cynwyd, PA, 19004 (voice) 610.668.7987, (fax) 610.660.0450, esmith@Brodsky-Smith.com Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP (Melville) 58 South Service Road, Suite 200, Melville, NY, 11747 (voice) 631.367.7100, (fax) 631.367.1173, info@csgrr.com/ Federman & Sherwood (Oklahoma City) 120 North Robinson, Suite 2720, Oklahoma City, OK, 73102 (voice) 405-235-1560, (fax) , wfederman@aol.com Kahn Gauthier Swick, LLC (NY) 12 East 41st Street, 12th Floor, New York, NY, 10016 (voice) 212.920.4310, (fax) 212.696.3730, info@kglg.com Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer, LLP (former New York, NY) 805 Third Avenue, 22nd Floor, New York, NY, 10022 (voice) 212.687.1980, (fax) 212.687.7714, info@kaplanfox.com Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein LLP Embarcadero Center West 275 Battery Street, Suite 3000, San Francisco, CA, 94111-3339 (voice) 415.956.1000, (fax) 415.956.1008, Lionel Z. Glancy 1801 Avenue of the Stars Suite 308, Los Angeles, CA, 90067 (voice) 310.201.9150, (fax) , Murray, Frank & Sailer LLP 275 Madison Ave 34th Flr, New York, NY, 10016 (voice) 212.682.1818, (fax) 212.682.1892, email@murrayfrank.com Scott & Scott LLC (Connecticut) P.O. Box 192, 108 Norwich Avenue, Colchester, CT, 06415 (voice) 860.537.5537, (fax) 860.537.4432, scottlaw@scott-scott.com Smith & Smith LLP 3070 Bristol Pike, Suite 112, Bensalem, PA, 19020 (voice) 215.638.4847, (fax) 215.638.4867, _____________________________________________ TOTAL NUMBER OF PLAINTIFF FIRMS: 10

DOCUMENTS FOR THE FIRST IDENTIFIED COMPLAINT
Class Action Complaint for Violations of Federal Securities Laws - Jury Trial Demanded
Type: Complaint		Date on the document: 01/28/2008
Stipulation And Order
Type: Order		Date on the document: 3/6/2008
Memorandum Order
Type: Order		Date on the document: 01/30/2009

REFERENCE COMPLAINT

In Re SunOpta Inc. Securities Litigation

COURT: S.D. New York	DOCKET NUMBER: 08-CV-00933
JUDGE NAME: Hon. Paul A. Crotty
DATE FILED: 04/14/2009	SOURCE: Docket
CLASS PERIOD START: 08/08/2007	CLASS PERIOD END: 01/25/2008
TYPE OF COMPLAINT: Consolidated Complaint
PLAINTIFF FIRMS NAMED IN COMPLAINT:
Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP (Melville) 58 South Service Road, Suite 200, Melville, NY, 11747 (voice) 631.367.7100, (fax) 631.367.1173, info@csgrr.com/ _____________________________________________ TOTAL NUMBER OF PLAINTIFF FIRMS: 1

DOCUMENTS FOR THE REFERENCE COMPLAINT
Stipulation and Agreement of Settlement
Type: Settlement		Date on the document: 11/13/2009
Preliminary Order For Notice And Hearings In Connection With Settlement Proceedings
Type: Order		Date on the document: 02/02/2010
Order And Final Judgment
Type: Order		Date on the document: 05/17/2010
Order Awarding Lead Plaintiffs' Counsel's Attorneys' Fees And Expenses
Type: Order Approving AF&E		Date on the document: 05/17/2010
U.S. District Court Civil Docket
Type: Docket		Date on the document: 05/17/2010

OTHER DOCUMENTS
Class Action Complaint - Jury Trial Demanded
Case Name and/or Number: Stephen Strugala, et al. v. SunOpta, Inc., et al.
Type: Complaint		Date on the document: 02/01/2008
Class Action Complaint for Violations of Federal Securities Laws - Jury Trial Demanded
Case Name and/or Number: Ray Foster, et al. v. SunOpta, Inc., et al.
Type: Complaint		Date on the document: 02/07/2008
Class Action Complaint for Violations of Federal Securities Laws - Jury Trial Demanded
Case Name and/or Number: Roger Davidson, et al. v. SunOpta, Inc., et al.
Type: Complaint		Date on the document: 02/13/2008
Class Action Complaint for Violations of Federal Securities Laws - Jury Trial Demanded
Case Name and/or Number: Marie Lorenzato, et al. v. SunOpta, Inc., et al.
Type: Complaint		Date on the document: 02/25/2008
Class Action Complaint - Jury Trial Demanded
Case Name and/or Number: Robert Knox, et al. v. SunOpta, Inc., et al.
Type: Complaint		Date on the document: 02/29/2008
Class Action Complaint - Jury Trial Demanded
Case Name and/or Number: Albert Halegoua, et al. v. SunOpta, Inc., et al.
Type: Complaint		Date on the document: 03/19/2008

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