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| 2002 News and Press Releases |
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HEADLINE ARCHIVED:
Lawsuit Against Network Commerce Is Dismissed
By: Monica Soto
The Seattle Times. September 27, 2002
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EXCERPT: A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed a shareholder lawsuit filed against
Network Commerce, the once-high-flying Seattle Internet company. The class-action lawsuit, filed by Keller Rohrback in June 2001, charged that the company made improper loans to former Chief Executive Dwayne Walker and offered false statements about its financial results to inflate its stock. In January, the company's attorney filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit. Judge Robert Lasnick on Monday granted the motion "with prejudice," which means the plaintiffs cannot file an amended complaint. Had the judge denied the motion, the two parties would have entered the discovery phase of the case. The plaintiff's only legal recourse now is to appeal the ruling to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Stellman Keehnel, the lead attorney at Gray Cary who defended Network Commerce, said the judge dismissed the case because the plaintiffs made claims that weren't true. "In each instance, we were able to explain to the judge that the allegedly omitted information was disclosed to the market," he said. "The plaintiffs didn't have their facts right." In their suit, the investors contended $4.5 million in loans Walker received from the company were not properly disclosed. The loans were later forgiven. Walker resigned in July and became president and chief operating officer of Fidelity National Information Solutions, a real-estate services company in Santa Barbara, Calif.
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