Wall St. firms to pay $910 mln to settle suit
NEW YORK, Dec 24- Thirty Wall Street brokerages agreed to pay a total of $910
million to settle a class action suit alleging the firms colluded to fix prices on the Nasdaq market,
the plaintiff's co-lead counsel said on Wednesday.
''It is a magnificent victory for the class and a holiday present for investors,'' counsel Arthur
Kaplan told Reuters.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of people who bought and sold securities on the Nasdaq
electronic stock market with the complaint alleging the Nasdaq market makers conspired to widen
spreads between the bid and the ask prices.
The suit was filed on behalf of Nasdaq buyers and sellers for a small number of stocks, but was
subsequently expanded to 1,659 Nasdaq national market stocks that were the subject of the
alleged price-fixing.
The plaintiff's co-lead counsels said in a news release it believed the proposed settlements were
the largest antitrust settlements in the history of federal or state antitrust laws.
The settling defendants included: A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc (NYSE:AGE - news), Bear, Stearns
C& Co Inc, BT Alex.Brown Inc (NYSE:BT - news), CIBC Oppenheimer Corp, Dean Witter
Reynolds Inc (NYSE:MWD - news), Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities (NYSE:DLJ -
news), EVEREN Securities Inc, Furman Selz, part of ING Barings (ING.AS),Goldman Sachs &
Co, Hambrecht & Quist Inc (NYSE:HQ - news), J.C. Bradford & Co LLC, J.P. Morgan
Securities Inc (NYSE:JPM - news), Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc and Lehman Brothers
(NYSE:LEH - news).
Other settling firms were: Cowen & Co, Mayer & Schweitzer Inc, Merrill Lynch and Co Inc
(NYSE:MER - news), Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc, Morgan Stanley & Co Inc (NYSE:MWD -
news), Nash, Weiss & Co, OLDE Discount Corp, PaineWebber Group Inc (NYSE:PWJ -
news), Piper Jaffray Cos (NYSE:PJC - news), Prudential Securities Inc, The Robinson-Humphrey
Co Inc, Salomon Brothers Inc and Smith Barney Inc, both part of Travelers Group Inc
(NYSE:TRV - news), Troster Singer, UBS Securities LLC and Weeden & Co LP, the plaintiff's
co-lead counsels said.
Credit Suisse First Boston Corp also settled, the plaintiff's counsel said.
Among firms not immediately available to comment were CS First Boston, Prudential, Merrill
Lynch, Salomon Smith Barney, ING Barings, Bankers Trust and Goldman Sachs.
But a source at Goldman confirmed the privately-held brokerage firm settled and would pay about
$75 million.
Hambrecht & Quist said on Wednesday that it expected to take an after-tax charge of $0.17 per
share in the current quarter for the suit settlement.
J.P. Morgan and Lehman Brothers declined to comment.
The Wall Street Journal said in its ''Heard on the Street'' column that Merrill Lynch would pay
about $100 million, the largest chunk of the settlement. It cited firm sources.
Of the 37 firms accused in the class action suit, the following six firms had already settled for a
total of about $100 million: Jefferies Group Inc [NYSE:JEF - news], Sherwood Securities, Kidder
Peabody & Co, Cantor Fitzgerald LP, Montgomery Securities Inc, a unit of NationsBank Corp
(NYSE:NB - news), and Herzog Heine Geduld Inc, Robert Skirnick, an attorney for the plaintiffs,
said earlier.
All settlements of the 1994 suit were subject to court approval by U.S. District Court Judge
Robert Sweet, the counsels said.
The new settlement also preserved damage claims by the class against the remaining defendant,
Robertson, Stephens & Co, a subsidiary of BankAmerica Corp (NYSE:BAC - news), they said.
As soon as the fund managers bonus dollars are set for the year, the market is in trouble.
I just keep adding up all these seeminly random events. |
