RADNOR, Pa., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The following statement was issued today by the law firm of Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP:
Notice is hereby given that a class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York on behalf of all those who purchased Franklin Templeton mutual funds from the AIG Advisor Group (Parent company is defendant American International Group, Inc. , hereinafter "AIG" or the "Company") from June 30, 2000 through June 8, 2005, inclusive (the "Class Period").
During the Class Period, the AIG Advisor Group consisted of the following broker-dealers: Royal Alliance, Inc., SunAmerica Securities, Inc., FSC Securities Corp., Sentra Securities Corporation, Spelman & Co., Inc., and Advantage Capital Corp.
The Franklin Templeton mutual funds and their respective symbols are as follows:
Franklin AGE High Income Fund
Franklin Adjustable U.S. Government Securities Fund
Franklin Aggressive Growth Fund
Franklin Alabama Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Arizona Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Balance Sheet Investment Fund
Franklin Biotechnology Discovery Fund
Franklin Blue Chip Fund
Franklin California High Yield Municipal Fund
Franklin California Insured Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin California Intermediate-Term Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin California Limited Term Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin California Tax-Exempt Money Fund
Franklin California Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Capital Growth Fund
Franklin Colorado Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Connecticut Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Convertible Securities Fund
Franklin Double Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin DynaTech Fund
Franklin Equity Income Fund
Franklin Federal Intermediate-Term Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Federal Limited Term Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Federal Money Fund
Franklin Federal Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Flex Cap Growth Fund
Franklin Floating Rate Daily Access Fund
Franklin Floating Rate Trust
Franklin Florida Insured Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Florida Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Georgia Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Global Aggressive Growth Fund
Franklin Global Communications Fund
Franklin Global Growth Fund
Franklin Global Health Care Fund
Franklin Gold and Precious Metals Fund
Franklin Growth Fund
Franklin High Yield Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Income Fund
Franklin Insured Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Kentucky Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Large Cap Growth Fund
Franklin Large Cap Value Fund
Franklin Louisiana Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Maryland Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Massachusetts Insured Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Michigan Insured Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin MicroCap Value Fund
Franklin Minnesota Insured Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Missouri Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Money Fund
Franklin Natural Resources Fund
Franklin New Jersey Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin New York Insured Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin New York Intermediate-Term Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin New York Limited Term Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin New York Tax-Exempt Money Fund
Franklin New York Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin North Carolina Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Ohio Insured Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Oregon Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Pennsylvania Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Real Estate Securities Fund
Franklin Rising Dividends Fund
Franklin Short-Intermediate U.S. Government Securities Fund
Franklin Small Cap Growth Fund II
Franklin Small Cap Value Fund
Franklin Small-Mid Cap Growth Fund
Franklin Strategic Income Fund
Franklin Strategic Mortgage Portfolio
Franklin Tax-Exempt Money Fund
Franklin Technology Fund
Franklin Templeton Conservative Target Fund
Franklin Templeton CoreFolio Allocation Fund
Franklin Templeton Founding Funds Allocation Fund
Franklin Templeton Growth Target Fund
Franklin Templeton Hard Currency Fund
Franklin Templeton Moderate Target Fund
Franklin Templeton Money Fund
Franklin Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund
Franklin Texas Tax-Free Income Fund
Franklin Total Return Fund
Franklin U.S. Government Securities Fund
Franklin U.S. Long-Short Fund
Franklin Utilities Fund
Franklin Virginia Tax-Free Income Fund
Templeton China World Fund
Templeton Developing Markets Trust
Templeton Foreign Fund
Templeton Foreign Smaller Companies Fund
Templeton Global Bond Fund
Templeton Global Long-Short Fund
Templeton Global Opportunities Trust
Templeton Global Smaller Companies Fund
Templeton Growth Fund, Inc.
Templeton International (Ex EM) Fund
Templeton Latin America Fund
Templeton Pacific Growth Fund
Templeton World Fund
Mutual Beacon Fund
Mutual Discovery Fund
Mutual European Fund
Mutual Financial Services Fund
Mutual Qualified Fund
Mutual Recovery Fund
Mutual Shares Fund
On June 8, 2005, the NASD announced that it had fined AIG in connection with the receipt of directed brokerage in exchange for preferential treatment for certain mutual fund companies and certain mutual fund families (the "Shelf-Space Funds").
The Shelf-Space Funds included the following mutual fund families: AIG SunAmerica, AIM, AllianceBernstein, American Funds, American Skandia, Columbia, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Hartford, John Hancock, MFS, NationsFunds, Pacific Life, Pioneer, Putnam, Oppenheimer, Scudder, Van Kampen, and WM Funds Distributor, Inc.
If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP (Darren J. Check, Esq. or Richard A. Maniskas, Esq.) toll-free at 1-888-299-7706 or 1-610-667-7706, or via e-mail at
The Complaint charges AIG and certain of its affiliated entities with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. More specifically, the Complaint alleges that the defendants, in clear contravention of their disclosure obligations and fiduciary responsibilities, failed to properly disclose that they had been aggressively pushing sales personnel to sell the Shelf-Space Funds that provided financial incentives and rewards to AIG and its personnel based on sales. Instead of offering fair, honest and unbiased recommendations to investors, the AIG Financial Advisors gave pre-determined recommendations, pushing clients into a pre-selected limited number of mutual funds so that the Financial Advisors could reap millions of dollars in kickbacks from the Shelf-Space Funds, with which they had struck secret, highly-lucrative deals to profit at shareholders' expense. The defendants' sales practices created a material insurmountable conflict of interest between the defendants and their clients by providing substantial monetary incentives to sell Shelf-Space Funds, sales of which increased the defendants' overall profits, but diminished investors' returns in the process. While Shelf-Space Funds were aggressively sold to investors, the defendants failed to disclose any of these financial incentives for selling such funds. The conflict of interest created by the defendants' failure to disclose the incentives is a clear violation of federal securities laws.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of class members and is represented by the law firm of Schiffrin & Barroway, which prosecutes class actions in both state and federal courts throughout the country. Schiffrin & Barroway is a driving force behind corporate governance reform, and has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of institutional and individual investors from the United States and around the world. For more information about Schiffrin & Barroway, or to sign up to participate in this action online, please visit http://www.sbclasslaw.com/
If you are a member of the class described above, you may, not later than June 6, 2006, move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff of the class, if you so choose. A lead plaintiff is a representative party that acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member's claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Under certain circumstances, one or more class members may together serve as "lead plaintiff." Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. You may retain Schiffrin & Barroway, or other counsel of your choice, to serve as your counsel in this action.
CONTACT: Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP
Darren J. Check, Esq.
Richard A. Maniskas, Esq.
280 King of Prussia Road
Radnor, PA 19087
1-888-299-7706 (toll-free) or 1-610-667-7706
Or by e-mail at
