Petroleum Development Corporation ("PDC" or the Company) is an American oil and gas exploration and production company.

According to a Complaint filed on December 7, 2011, the Defendants violated federal securities laws in connection with a proposed plan to take PDC’s various partnerships private.

Over a period of several years, the Company formed numerous limited partnerships to raise funds to finance the acquisition and development of oil and gas properties, and attracted thousands of investors who paid hundreds of millions of dollars for their limited partnership interests. The Plaintiff states that after raising these funds from investors. PDC decided to acquire all of the partnerships' assets for itself and to do so at inadequately low prices. To that end, the Company conceived and implemented a common scheme and plan to take all of the partnerships private by the end of 2012, by means of virtually identical proxy statements accomplished through a single entity, its wholly-owned subsidiary, and acquire all of the assets and the interests of the limited partners through cash out merger transactions.

PDC prepared and issued proxy statements to the limited partners. Those proxy statements, the Plaintiffs claim, contained materially false and misleading statements and omitted to state material facts relating to the value of the assets of the Partnerships and the units held by the limited partners. The proxy materials portrayed the value of the partnerships' units to be, under most measures, less than what would be paid to limited partners upon consummation of the mergers.

On March 19, 2012, the Court issued an order appointing lead Plaintiffs and Class Counsel.

On June 15, 2012, the Court issued an In Chambers Order denying Defendants' motion to dismiss and motion for stay.

On August 31, 2012, the Plaintiffs filed their amended Complaint.

On January 6, 2014, the Court granted the Plaintiffs' motion to certify Class.

On May 19, 2014, the Court issued an order granting in part and denying in part Defendant's motion for summary judgment. The Court also denied Defendants' decertification motion.

On December 22, 2014, the Parties entered into a Stipulation of Settlement. On December 29, the Court issued an order preliminarily approving the Settlement.

On March 16, 2015, the Court issued orders approving Plaintiffs' motion for attorney fees and expenses, granting final approval of the Settlement and entering final judgment. On March 14, 2016, the Court entered an order granting the motion for approval of payments and distributions from the Settlement fund. On March 4, 2020, the Court approved the Settlement's cy pres distribution.