Xcelera.com Investors Accuse Chairman of Fraud, WSJ Says
New York, Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Xcelera.com Inc. investors brought lawsuits against the company's chairman, Alexander Vik, alleging he misappropriated funds and manipulated stock offerings to gain control of Mirror Image Internet Inc., the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site, citing court documents.
One lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in New York, which seeks more than $250 million in damages, alleges Vik and VBI Corp, a company controlled by the Vik family, defrauded two Swedish investment companies of $3.2 million in 1999. A second lawsuit, filed at a state court in Wilmington, Delaware, seeking $450 million in damages, alleges Vik, his brother Gustav, Xcelera, and Mirror Image all fraudulently diluted Mirror Image shareholders' stakes, the Journal said.
Xcelera, a holding company for Internet infrastructure companies, has fallen to $6.25 a share from $112.50 in March on concerns about insider sales, shareholder litigation and the tax consequences of transactions, the Journal reported.
The allegations in the first lawsuit are ``frivolous, completely unfounded and utterly meritless,'' and those in the second suit are ``completely without merit'' and `` a regurgitation'' of an arbitration claim filed in Sweden earlier this year, a VBI spokesman told the paper.
The first lawsuit, filed by two companies linked to Kerstin and Tryggwe Karlsten, a Swedish couple, alleges Vik and VBI used $3.2 million sent to purchase the Karlstens a 50 percent stake in Mirror Image to instead buy shares in companies Vik and VBI controlled, the Journal reported.
The Wilmington suit was brought on behalf of Xcelera investors based in the U.K., Panama, and Sweden. The suit alleges that, while shifting the company's operations to the U.S., the defendants denied the plaintiffs information and barred them from taking part in private offerings while the Viks were buying newly issued shares at undervalued prices, the Journal said.
(WSJ 12/4)
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Dec/04/2000 4:10 ET |
