Lothian pension fund has been given permission by a US judge to continue its securities fraud case against Vodafone, the mobile telecoms group.
The case was thrown out by the US District Court of New York in December on the grounds that most of the alleged actions took place outside the US.
However, last week the case was re-opened by US District Judge P Kevin Castel. He said that when he dismissed the case, he had overlooked the fact that the US-based Sterling Heights Police & Fire Retirement System had joined the class action as a plaintiff.
The Sterling Heights pension fund’s lawyers earlier stated that it would be added “as an additional plaintiff to address any perceived concerns about (Lothian’s) ability to represent the entire class”.
Lothian claims to have lost £2.3m because Vodafone “artificially inflated its stock price through allegedly false statements about its financial health and business prospects”.
Vodafone is alleged to have made the statements ahead of its £118 billion merger with Dusseldorf-based telecoms group Mannesmann in 2000.
Edinburgh city council brought the action in November 2007 on behalf of the £2.9 billion Lothian Pension Fund. The Edinburgh-based pension scheme later became the lead plaintiff.
Published in the Sunday Times on 19 April 2009
Thank you very much for sharing this information I read this complete article and come to know about securities fraud case against Vodafone mobile phone company, now the case was open re-opened may be this time this case will be solve.