Allied Irish Banks, PLC ("AIB" or the Company) offers personal, business and corporate banking services in Ireland.
The original Complaint alleges that AIB's financial reports since 1999 fraudulently failed to reflect at least $691 million of currency trading losses associated with its AllFirst Financial, Inc. subsidiary. On February 6, 2002, AIB shocked the investment markets by disclosing for the first time that its AllFirst subsidiary had concealed massive losses from foreign exchange trading, and that AIB had halted all currency trading at AllFirst. Following this announcement, AIB's ADR price fell to $19.77, down 16% from the previous day's close of $23.55. AIB has since admitted that its 2001 financial reports alone overstated net income by as much as $449 million.
On April 26, 2002, the Plaintiffs filed a First Amended Complaint. On December 8, 2004, the Court issued a Memorandum and Order granting the motion to consolidate two related actions into Master File 02 Civ. 1738, captioned "In Re Allied Irish Banks, PLC, Securities Litigation.” Further, Plaintiff Manuel Feder's motion for appointment as lead Plaintiff was granted and law firm of Finkelstein, Thompson & Loughran and Stull, Stull & Brody was appointed lead Counsel and liaison Counsel, respectively. On February 7, 2005, a Consolidated Complaint was filed. The Defendants responded by filing motions to dismiss in April 2005. On August 31, 2005, default judgment was entered against Defendant John Rusnak. On March 30, 2006, the Court preliminarily approve the stipulation and the settlement and a final settlement hearing was set for July 17, 2006.
According to a press release dated April 26, 2006, pursuant to Rule 23 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and an Order of the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, the action entitled In re Allied Irish Banks, PLC Securities Litigation, Master File No. 02 Civ. 1738 (DAB), has been certified as a class action and that a cash settlement of $2,500,000, plus accrued interest, has been proposed. A hearing was scheduled before the Honorable Deborah A. Batts in the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Court house in New York, New York for July 17, 2006 to determine whether the proposed settlement should be approved by the Court as fair, reasonable and adequate, and to consider the application of Plaintiffs' Counsel for attorneys' fees and reimbursement of expenses.
On July 19, 2006, the Court entered the Order and Final Judgment signed by U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts. The action is settled and now closed.
