Legal News

GM, Deloitte, to Pay Combined $303M to Settle Securities Class Action

By Dan Slater

This news just in from plaintiffs lawyers at Grant & Eisenhofer and Labaton Sucharow: A class of GM shareholders has reached a $303 million settlement with the automaker and its outside auditor, Deloitte & Touche. According to the release, GM will kick in the lion’s share: $277 million. Deloitte will add $26 million.

The case stems from claims that GM issued a series of false and misleading statements to investors about its financial health going back to 2000.

The settlement requires approval from Judge Gerald Rosen in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Michigan.

Grant & Eisenhofer’s Jay Eisenhofer and James Sabella were co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs, along with Labaton Sucharow’s Jonathan Plasse, Eric Belfi and Richard Joffe.

A spokeswoman for Deloitte said: “Although it has strong defenses to these claims, Deloitte concluded that it was in the best interests of the firm and its clients to settle this matter now rather than face the burden, expense and uncertainty of continued litigation.”

A call to GM was not immediately returned.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 08, 2008 (boomark / email).