Stockholders v Lazard Ltd.
Stockholders File Lawsuit Against Lazard Ltd.
A class action has been filed against Lazard Ltd. (NYSE:LAZ), certain of its officers and directors by stockholders who purchased the company's common stock between May 04, 2005 and May 12, 2005. The action claims that the defendants violated federal securities laws by issuing a series of material misrepresentations to the market over this time period, thereby artificially inflating the price of the company's securities. The stockholders seek to recover compensatory damages for the loss of value of their stock.
Several purported shareholder class action lawsuits have been filed against Lazard, Goldman Sachs & Co ("Goldman") (the lead underwriter of the IPO), and certain of the Company's officers and directors alleging the defendants violated the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by issuing a materially false and misleading Registration and Prospectus in connection with the Company's IPO, which was priced at $25 per share, and continuing to conceal material facts about the true value of the Company's stock price after the stock began to trade on the open market.
Specifically, the complaint alleges that the Registration Statement/Prospectus failed to disclose, among other things, that: (a) the basis for the $25 price for shares sold in the IPO was to enable defendant, the Company's Chief Executive Officer, to raise sufficient funds to gain control of the Company from Michel David Weill ("David Weill"), a cousin of the Company's founders; (ii) that prior to the IPO, market demand had indicated that the proper price for the IPO was only $22 per share; (iii) that to "create a market" and thereby manufacture an appearance that Lazard's IPO was fairly and properly priced, Goldman arranged to sell millions of shares to hedge funds with side agreements that they could immediately "flip the shares" and that Goldman would immediately buy them back; (iv) that the Prospectus had failed to adequately and fully comply with S-K Item 505 which requires a prospectus to describe "the various factors considered in determining the offering price" when common shares without an established public trading market are being registered; and (v) that, in violation of Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, the Registration Statement/Prospectus failed to disclose that the Company's deputy Chairman in Europe and a major rainmaker of new business for the Company, who had only supported the IPO because of a promise (which was later reneged on) that he would be appointed as head of Lazard's European operations, was likely to leave Lazard and/or cause turmoil within the organization as he opposed the IPO and opposed the Company's CEO's purchase of David Weill's shares.
The complaint further alleges that on or around May 12, 2005, only days after the IPO, and right after Goldman stopped buying back the Company's shares, the price of the Company's shares plunged from $25 per share to less than $21 per share.
If you bought Lazard Ltd. securities between May 04, 2005 and May 12, 2005, inclusive, and would like to obtain information about the lawsuit, then you are invited to call (866) 467-1400 to speak with an attorney.
