WASHINGTON, Dec. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Finkelstein, Thompson & Loughran ("FTL") announces that a lawsuit seeking class action status has been filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against TOP Tankers, Inc. ("TOP" or the "Company") . FTL is investigating similar claims at this time and welcomes inquiries from investors concerning their rights and interests in this matter.
The putative class action alleges that TOP and certain officers and directors violated federal securities laws by issuing a series of false and misleading statements. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that the Company failed to disclose and misrepresented material adverse facts concerning the Company's financial results in order to: (1) inflate the price of TOP shares by deceiving shareholders regarding the Company's internal operational controls, financial procedures, and the intrinsic value of TOP common stock; (2) register for sale with the SEC millions of shares of TOP stock, and grant shareholders a massive dividend of $7.50 per share -- approximately $40 million of which was paid to defendants and their families; and (3) permit Kingdom Holdings, an entity owned by the family of defendant Evangelos Pistiolis, to liquidate almost 900,000 shares of TOP stock during the Class Period while in possession of material adverse information about the Company.
On November 29, 2006, the Company disclosed that its auditors, Ernst & Young, LLP, had resigned over a disagreement related to its accounting for certain sale and leaseback transactions that closed in March and April 2006. The Company also said that it would restate its interim financial statements for the first and second quarters of 2006. The market responded sharply to this news with TOP's share price plummeting approximately 14 percent to a close of $5.04.
FTL has spent almost three decades delivering outstanding representation to institutional and individual clients in connection with securities and other finance-related litigation, and has been appointed as lead or co-lead counsel in dozens of shareholder class actions. Indeed, in the past ten years, the firm has served in leadership roles in cases that have recovered over $1 billion for investors and consumers.
If you purchased TOP securities between June 28, 2005 and November 28, 2006, inclusive, and wish to discuss this announcement or have information relevant to the investigation, please contact FTL's Washington, DC office at (877) 337-1050, by email at
