Opteum, Inc. operates as a real estate investment trust (REIT). It invests primarily in residential mortgage-related securities issued by the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, and the Government National Mortgage Association.

The original class action Complaint was filed against Opteum for violations of Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Specifically, the Complaint charges that Opteum, numerous individual officer and directors, Flagstone Securities, LLC and BB&T Capital Markets violated sections 11 & 15 of the 1933 Act and sections 10b & 20 of the 1934 Act in connection with the Defendants' IPO, secondary offering and thereafter during the Class Period. Defendants allegedly published a materially false and misleading Registration Statement and Proxy-Prospectus in connection with each of the Offerings, and during the Class Period Defendants published a series of materially false and misleading statements that the individual Defendants knew and/or recklessly disregarded were materially false and misleading when published.

On September 29, 2008, Judge Donald L. Graham granted the motion to consolidate the two related class actions, and also granted the motion for appointment of lead Plaintiff and lead Counsel. According to the Order, the Kornfield Group was appointed lead Plaintiff and Kahn Gauthier Swick LLC and Brower Piven P.C. was appointed lead Counsel. On October 29, 2008, the lead Plaintiff filed a Consolidated Amended Class Action Complaint. On December 15 and 22, 2008, the Defendants filed motions to dismiss the Amended Class Action Complaint. On September 30, 2009, Judge Donald L. Graham granted in part and denied in part the motions to dismiss.

On August 4, 2010, the lead Plaintiff filed a motion for preliminary approval of settlement. The proposed settlement is in the amount of $2,350,000 in cash. The settlement was preliminarily approved on September 14, 2010. The final settlement hearing is set for December 9, 2010. On December 14, 2010, Judge Donald L. Graham signed the Order approving the settlement and approving attorneys' fees and expenses. The action is now dismissed with prejudice.