McAfee & Taft Announces Formation of Bancorp Investors Task Force Print | Email | Add to Briefcase
Oklahoma City, OK - April 27, 2007
Today, senior trial lawyer Joseph H. Bocock of the law firm of McAfee & Taft announced the formation of the Bancorp Investors Task Force to repel the recent unusual securities fraud lawsuit filed in the District Court of Oklahoma County against 1272 individual investors. The case is styled Bancorp International Group, Inc. v. Michael W. Cannan et al., Case No. CJ-2007-3181, and allegedly arises out of the activities of Mario A. Pino, who supposedly created fake company stock certificates.
"This lawsuit is an outrage," noted Bocock, whose practice has long involved securities litigation and who is a member of the investor-friendly Public Investor Arbitration Bar Association. The firm's Bancorp Investors Task Force will seek resolution of the following issues in its representation of many of the impacted investors while employing some form of flat fee agreement:
1. Many investors have no contact with Oklahoma, which means that the Oklahoma courts lack in personam jurisdiction over them. This fact should have been known to the plaintiff and its lawyers when the lawsuit was filed;
2. Our clients typically bought the penny stock using Internet brokerage firms and had no knowledge of whatever fraud is alleged to exist. That fact also should have been known before the lawsuit was filed;
3. The amount of each investment is typically small, making it very difficult for our clients to defend themselves and to secure dismissals of all claims against them unless they proceed as a group; and
4. We have no way of knowing if the stock certificates are bogus as alleged. In no event should investors agree that the certificates are worthless without careful proof of that fact. If it is established that the stock certificates are indeed fraudulent, then claims against the brokerage firms that sold the stock certificates must be carefully disclosed.
"We are structuring a creative master client agreement that will allow the affected investors to resolve this matter efficiently," noted Bocock. The firm plans to charge the typical investor who invested less than $10,000 a flat fee of $500. Investors with investments of more than $10,000, but less than $50,000, would pay a flat fee of $1,000. Investors with investments of more than $50,000 would pay a flat fee of $2,000. In consideration of the reduced flat fee, the clients would allow the firm to keep any award of attorneys' fees or costs that it might secure against those who filed the action and a percentage of any other damages recovered.
In the event that a claim against a brokerage firm is warranted, the firm anticipates pursuit of such a claim employing a contingency fee agreement as may be agreed to by the client and the firm.
Potential clients must have e-mail access and should immediately contact legal assistant Sephy Palmerton at Sephy.Palmerton@mcafeetaft.com to be added to the contact list for further communication.
Most answer dates are in early to mid-May so time is of the essence.
About McAfee & Taft
McAfee & Taft is Oklahoma's largest law firm and one of the largest, most experienced law firms in the Southwest, serving clients throughout the region and nationally in the areas of aviation, business law, corporate and securities, employee benefits, environmental law, healthcare, intellectual property, labor and employment, litigation, oil and gas, real estate and tax and family wealth. The firm employs more than 200 Oklahomans, including 125 attorneys.
mcafeetaft.com |
