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Technology Stocks : IDT *(idtc) following this new issue?* -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: 613 who wrote (30503)	9/13/2004 10:55:46 AM
From: carreraspyder	Respond to of 30916

(just saw it;)-- IDT Sues Morgan Stanley, Claims It Caused Contract Breach September 9, 2004: 17:33 p.m. EST - Dow Jones Newswires NEW YORK -- Telecommunications company IDT Corp. (IDT) is suing the broker- dealer units of Morgan Stanley Inc. (MWD), saying the investment banker forced another Morgan Stanley client to breach a contract with IDT in an effort to line its own pockets. In a lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York on Thursday, IDT, a Newark, N.J., telecommunications company, claims Morgan Stanley induced Telefonica International SA (TEF) to breach a "lucrative" contract with IDT, causing "hundreds of millions of dollars in damages." The suit names Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. as defendants. "Morgan Stanley's motive for doing so was naked greed," the lawsuit says. The lawsuit seeks the return of a $10 million investment-banking fee paid to Morgan Stanley by IDT, certain profits the investment bank may have obtained from Telefonica and other damages. "We believe that the claim is baseless and without merit and will contest it vigorously," said Andrew Walton, a Morgan Stanley spokesman. The suit claims Morgan Stanley would have earned no fees from a separately negotiated contract between IDT and Telefonica, but stood to earn tens of millions of dollars in investment-banking fees if it could convince Telefonica to breach the contract and enter a similar deal with another client. The complaint says Morgan Stanley misused confidential business and financial information garnered from its relationship with IDT to persuade Telefonica to breach the contract, including advising Telefonica that IDT's business "was not sound." IDT was awarded damages by an arbitration panel, which found Telefonica had breached the contract, according to the lawsuit. However, the panel assessed damages based in part on a fraudulent valuation prepared by Morgan Stanley, IDT said in its complaint. In its claim, IDT said it plans to litigate issues that weren't resolved by the arbitration panel and seeks damages that are "distinct from those sought and awarded in the arbitration."