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SETTLEMENT NEWS:
DVI INC: "Merrill Lynch" $4.5MM Securities Suit Deal Gets OK
Staff Writer
Class Action Reporter. May 5, 2008
_________________________________________________________________________
EXCERPT: The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
granted approval to a partial settlement with Merrill Lynch &
Co., Inc., one of the named defendants in the case "In Re DVI,
Inc. Securities Litigation, Case No. 2:03-CV-5336." In an email message, Clint Krislov, Esq., of Krislov & Associates, Ltd. -- lead plaintiff's counsel in the securities
class action -- said that on April 30, 2008, the court approved
the partial settlement of the PSLRA claims against Merrill
Lynch, for $4.5 million.
Case Background
In 2003, DVI, Inc., was named defendant in a lawsuit filed with
the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
alleging violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the U.S.
Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and Rule 10b-5 promulgated
thereunder. The suit alleged that the company issued a series of material
misrepresentations to the market between Nov. 7, 2001, and
June 27, 2003, thereby artificially inflating the price of DVI's
publicly traded securities. The complaint alleged that these statements were materially
false and misleading because they failed to disclose and
misrepresented these adverse facts, among others:
-- that the company had failed to timely write down the
value of certain assets which had become impaired;
-- that the company's accounting and financial reporting
policies and procedures for non-systematic (non-
recurring) transactions were inadequate;
-- that the company lacked adequate internal controls and
was therefore unable to ascertain the true financial
condition of the company; and
-- that as a result, the values of the company's assets,
net income and earnings per share were materially
overstated at all relevant times.
The class period ended June 27, 2003. On that date, DVI shocked
the investing public when it announced that the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission had rejected its March 30, 2003
quarterly report because an independent auditor had not reviewed it. |
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