Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. investors file lawsuit alleging securities laws violations

Oct. 4, 2010 - PRLog -- An investor in Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc.  filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Vermont over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws by Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. in connection with an SEC investigation.

If you purchased Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc.  common stock between July 28, 2010 and September 28, 2010, you have certain options and there are strict and short deadlines running. Deadline: November 29, 2010. Those GMCR stockholder and current long term GMCR investors, including those who purchased (also) prior to July 28, 2010 and continue to presently hold those GMCR shares, should contact the Shareholders Foundation at mail@shareholdersfoundation.com or call +1(858) 779 – 1554.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, located in Waterbury, VT, together with its subsidiaries (GMCR, Inc.) is engaged in the specialty coffee and coffee maker businesses. In May 2010 Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc.  acquired Diedrich Coffee, Inc.  for $35 per share of common stock in cash, pursuant to a cash tender offer and a “short form” merger, in a transaction with a total value of approximately $300 million. Green Mountain Coffee Roaster’s 12 month revenue increased significantly over the past four years from $225.32million reported on September 30, 2006 to $803.04million reported on September 26, 2009. Its Net Income went from $8.44million to $55.88 over the same time frame.
According to the recently filed complaint the plaintiff alleges that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. and certain of its Officers violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by issuing between July 28, 2010 and September 28, 2010 a series of materially false and misleading statements related to Green Mountain Coffee Roasters business and operations. The plaintiff alleges that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters artificially inflated its stock price between July 28, 2010 and September 28, 2010 by issuing inaccurate and unreliable financial statements, which were not prepared in accordance with GAAP and SEC rules. The Complaint further alleges that on August 28, 2010, Green Mountain completed a sale of 8,566,649 shares of its common stock to Luigi Lavazza, for an aggregate purchase price of $250 million, despite the fact that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters knew its reported financial statements were untrue and that it lacked adequate systems of internal operational and financial controls.  Then on September 28, 2010, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters disclosed in a Form 8-K filed with U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) that on September 20, 2010, the SEC’s Division of Enforcement informed Green Mountain Coffee Roasters that the SEC was conducting an inquiry and made a request for a voluntary production of documents and information. Further, it was disclosed that Green Mountain Coffee Roasters had been notified by the SEC of this investigation as early as September 20, 2010. The Form 8-K further stated that “the Company believes the focus of the inquiry concerns certain revenue recognition practices and the Company’s relationship with one of its fulfillment vendors.” Green Mountain Coffee Roasters disclosed that in connection with the preparation of its financial results for its fourth fiscal quarter, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters management discovered an accounting error “relating to the margin percentage it had been using to eliminate the inter-company markup in its K-Cup inventory balance residing at its Keurig business unit. Management discovered that the gross margin percentage used to eliminate the inter-company markup resulted in a lower margin applied to the Keurig ending inventory balance effectively overstating consolidated inventory and understating cost of sales. Management determined that the accounting error arose during fiscal 2007 and analyzed the quantitative impact from that point forward to June 26, 2010. As of June 26, 2010, there is a cumulative $7.6 million overstatement of pre-tax income. Net of tax, the cumulative error resulted in a $4.4 million overstatement of net income or a $0.03 cumulative impact on earnings per share.” Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc.  traded on September 28, 2010 at close to $38 per share before declining to $30.66 per share or by almost 20% on September 29, 2010. GMCR shares recently traded at $31.19 per share.

Those who purchased Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc. (Public, NASDAQ-GMCR) common stock between July 28, 2010 and September 28, 2010, have certain options and there are strict and short deadlines running. Deadline: November 29, 2010. Those GMCR stockholder and current long term GMCR investors, including those who purchased (also) prior to July 28, 2010 and continue to presently hold those GMCR shares, should contact the Shareholders Foundation at mail@shareholdersfoundation.com or call +1(858) 779 – 1554.

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