The original complaint charges NUI Corporation and its President, Chief Executive Director, and a Director and member of the Executive Committee, with violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5, by issuing a series of materially false and misleading statements to the market during the Class Period concerning the failure to properly record its fixed cost expenses, accrue necessary pension expenses, and reserve adequate amounts for its self-insured medical benefits in its quarterly unaudited financial statements.

As alleged in the Complaint, throughout the Class Period, defendants knew that NUI was confronting material problems in its businesses which were causing NUI to incur greatly increased costs throughout the Class Period. These costs included significant increases in fixed costs for its telecommunications business, greatly increasing costs of self-insuring for medical benefits, and the tremendous decline in the value of its pension plan assets which would cause NUI to accrue substantial pension expense. These increased material costs were putting a tremendous strain on NUI's operating margins and, if properly and fully accounted for in NUI's financial statements, would cause NUI to suffer greatly reduced earnings per share.

The problem presented to defendants by these materially increasing costs and their negative impact on NUI's earnings if properly and fully accounted for and disclosed was exacerbated by the high level of long-term and short-term debt on NUI's balance sheet and the declining earnings NUI began to experience at the outset of the Class Period.

Thus, in order to mislead the market with respect to NUI's spiraling costs and negative impact on NUI's margins and earnings, defendants embarked on the scheme and continuing course of conduct during the Class Period to enable NUI to complete necessary corporate acquisitions using its stock as currency and to complete a public offering of common stock to generate desperately-needed cash to pay down its short-term debt.

Finally, when NUI's newly appointed outside auditors were conducting their audit of NUI's financial statements for Fiscal Year 2002, the twelve months ended September 30, 2002 ("FY 2002"), defendants, on October 18, 2002, disclosed the long-withheld truth: NUI would sustain greatly reduced earnings for FY 2002 and FY 2003 because of its spiraling costs, including significantly increased fixed costs to build its back office infrastructure to support its telecommunications business and significant increases in medical and pension benefit expenses due to the increase in the volume of claims and the decline in the equity market. As a result of this disclosure, NUI's share price fell more than 50%, falling $10.17 per share, to close at $10.00 per share on October 18, 2002, on extraordinary volume of 3.2 million shares.

On January 20, 2006, the Court granted final approval of the Settlement, including an award of Attorneys’ Fees and Expenses, and entered Final Judgment.

On September 7, 2006, the Court issued an Order authorizing distribution of the Settlement fund.