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Strategies & Market Trends : The Epic American Credit and Bond Bubble Laboratory -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mike Johnston who wrote (58840)	4/20/2006 8:17:59 AM
From: shades	Respond to of 110194

Judge Denies Class-Action Status In IPO Price-Fixing Case (You are silly to think gold will protect you from the evil that men do - it wont) . By Chad Bray Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--A federal judge has refused to certify as a class action one of two antitrust lawsuits that allege investment banks, such as Citigroup Inc. (C), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Goldman Sachs Group (GS), colluded to fix underwriting fees on certain initial public offerings. In an order made public Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Lawrence M. McKenna denied class-action status for a lawsuit brought in 2000 on behalf of IPO issuers, saying the two named plaintiffs - Cordes & Company Financial Services and the unsecured creditors trust of Equalnet Corp. - aren't members of the proposed class. "They cannot represent the issuer class," the judge said. The lawsuit was one of two brought against the major underwriters over alleged collusion since 1994 to fix underwriting fees charged to issuers of IPOs valued between $20 million and $80 million at 7% of the proceeds of those offerings. At the same, the judge is still considering whether to grant class status to a related lawsuit brought in 1998 on behalf of purchasers of IPOs. Judge McKenna has previously ruled that IPO buyers weren't direct purchasers of services from IPO underwriters and couldn't seek damages. The judge said in his order that he was unsure if the purchasers would be willing to proceed without the assistance of plaintiffs in the related issuer case. -By Chad Bray, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires April 20, 2006 07:39 ET (11:39 GMT) Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 07 39 AM EDT 04-20-06