Theodore A. Bechtold Esq. to seek removal of Milberg Weiss from the IPO Securities Litigation

PRLog (Press Release) – Apr 10, 2007 – From its inception the IPO Securities Litigation appears to have been directed by Milberg Weiss solely to obtain the legal fees.  The still pending issuer settlement presented to the Court by Milberg Weiss provides a clear picture of the priorities of counsel.  The settlement includes no money for class members but does arrange for payment of well over $300 million in legal fees and expenses.  Milberg Weiss even agreed that the class would be required to pay all legal fees incurred by the issuer defendants in the case.  An indicted racketeering enterprise responsible for presenting such a self interested and absurd settlement proposal to a Federal Court on behalf of his clients does not provide fair and adequate representation for the Class members in the IPO Securities Litigation.

Under the direction of Milberg Weiss the IPO Securities Litigation Executive Committee failed to charge hundreds of underwriters listed in the prospectuses for the 309 charged IPO’s.  In the 6 “focus cases” decertified by the Second Circuit the Committee failed to charge 70% of the underwriters listed in the prospectus.  Venture capital investors, hedge funds and other clearly culpable parties were completely ignored as defendants even if they were listed in the prospectus as principle shareholders or otherwise identified by counsel as participants in the manipulation.

Establishing fraud on the court in the conduct of the case would enable Class members in the IPO Securities Litigation to void all prior legal proceedings and obtain new class counsel.   This would provide legitimate legal representation for an effort to have these classes certified in Federal Court.  Establishing fraud on the court could also allow the class period for each offering to be extended. One alternative cutoff date would be when securities analysts stopped intentionally deceiving investors by issuing positive reports on these falling stocks.  Since the analysts generally did not downgrade these stocks until the price collapse was complete this could result in far larger shareholder classes seeking even greater damages for additional years of market manipulation.  

The IPO Securities Litigation Executive Committee was given ample opportunity by the Court to file amended complaints.  Defendants have said from the first public allegations that these activities were customary, industrywide practices.  There is no legitimate, plausible explanation for experienced counsel ignoring this many easily identified, clearly culpable, deep pocketed defendants.  Many of these prospective defendants had extensive liability insurance coverage which provided another means to obtain increased client recovery.  Further examination of this and other inexplicable litigation decisions by Milberg Weiss and its IPO Securities Litigation Executive Committee is clearly warranted.    

The investigation by counsel has also identified several groups of lead plaintiffs utilized by Milberg Weiss, Bernstein Liebhard Lifshitz and other IPO Executive Committee firms to gain control of these 309 cases that may not be acceptable class representatives.  The future of the case appears very uncertain, as does the future of Milberg Weiss and its indicted partners.  Counsel believes that considering all surrounding facts and circumstances fair and adequate legal representation for all 7 million class members requires the immediate removal of lead counsel that has been indicted as a racketeering enterprise.  

If you are a class member in the IPO Securities Litigation and would like to discuss the possibility of intervening in the IPO Securities Litigation to remove Milberg Weiss and Bershad you are encouraged to immediately contact Theodore Andrew Bechtold, Esq. at 1 (570) 686-3438 or by E-Mail.

If you are a class member in any Milberg Weiss led case and are concerned about your continued legal representation by the firm after its indictment as a racketeering enterprise you are also encouraged to contact Theodore Andrew Bechtold, Esq. to discuss your legal rights.  You may retain Theodore Andrew Bechtold, Esq. or any lawyer you choose to act as your counsel in these cases.  Feel free to E-mail, call or visit the saveourstockmarket website for more information about this developing situation.