Accredited Settles Investor Securities Suit For $22M

Accredited Settles Investor Securities Suit For $22M - 7/16/2009

Home

Index of Filings

News and Press Releases

Filings

Decisions

Settlements

Litigation Activity Indices

Top Ten List

Annual/Quarterly Updates

Clearinghouse Research

Articles & Papers

Search

Related Sites

About Us

Local Rules

Sponsors

Register

_______________
Copyright © 2001
Stanford Law School

2009 News and Press Releases

SEARCH

News	News 2009
HEADLINES \| SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS \| COURT FILINGS LINKS TO OTHER NEWS \| NEWS ARCHIVE	HEADLINES ARCHIVED SETTLEMENTS AND DISMISSALS ARCHIVED

SETTLEMENT NEWS:

Accredited Settles Investor Securities Suit For $22M
Richard Vanderford

Securities Law 360. July 16, 2009
_________________________________________________________________________

EXCERPT: Plaintiffs have reached a $22 million cash settlement in their proposed class action against bankrupt subprime lender Accredited Home Lenders Holding Co. and its directors and officers, whose alleged book-cooking burned shareholders. After over 4 million discovery documents, 17 depositions and two days of talk, the parties have reached an equitable agreement, the lead plaintiffs said in an unopposed motion for preliminary approval of the settlement filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. With the San Diego-based Accredited having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, insurers will foot the bill, the parties said in their stipulation of settlement. Shareholders launched several securities class actions against Accredited in March 2007, according to the motion. Later consolidated, the cases accused Accredited and its directors of lending indiscriminately to increase their reported revenues, while billing themselves as a conservative subprime lender. A settlement came after months of litigation and two days of negotiations that “were nothing less than hard-fought,” the plaintiffs said in their motion for preliminary approval. “Litigating this complex securities fraud class action to completion would result in significant expense and risk. This recovery, obtained in the face of the real risk of no recovery at all, is particularly supportive of approval of the settlement,” the plaintiffs said. Insurers National Union Fire Insurance Co., Allied World Assurance Co. and RSUI Indemnity Co. will be asked to cover the settlement under the defendants' directors and officers liability insurance policies, the parties said in their stipulation of settlement. The proposed class includes anyone who bought or acquired one of the millions of Accredited shares traded on Nasdaq between Nov. 1, 2005, and March 12, 2007, excluding the company's directors and officers, their families and opt-outs. Accredited and the individual defendants have not admitted wrongdoing.

Back to News page | Back to Archived News 2009 page | Back to Top

�