Anderson Kill & Olick Files Class Action Against Westgate Capital Management
3/10/2009
New York, NY (March 9, 2009) - The law firm of Anderson Kill & Olick, P.C. today announced that a class action lawsuit was filed on March 2, 2009 on behalf of individuals and entities that invested with the investment firm of Westgate Capital Management LLC between January 1, 2004 and March 2, 2009 (the "class period").
The case is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York as case no 09 98CV 1906 (NRB). You can obtain a copy of the complaint from the clerk of the court or you may download a copy here.
The complaint charges Westgate and certain of its officers and directors, including James M. Nicholson, with violations of Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and various other torts for issuing materially false and inaccurate financial statements and other information to the investing public.
For instance, Westgate represented that it managed assets ranging from $600 million to $900 million, that it used prime brokers for custody of fund assets and that its financial statements were audited by independent certified public accountants. However, the complaint alleges that Westgate had no more than $100 million under its management, failed to use independent auditors and failed to place fund assets with custodians.
On February 25, 2009, the SEC filed a complaint against Westgate and Nicholson charging them with operating a large-scale scheme that defrauded hundreds of investors of millions of dollars by providing them with misleading marketing materials that overstated investment returns and by misrepresenting the value of the assets under management. (See: SEC Litigation Release No. 20911). Additionally, the SEC sought a court order freezing Westgate and Nicholson's assets. Moreover, on February 25, 2009, the FBI announced that Nicholson had been arrested on charges of securities and bank fraud based upon these same allegations. (See: US DOJ press release).
NO CLASS HAS YET BEEN CERTIFIED IN THE ABOVE ACTION. UNTIL A CLASS IS CERTIFIED, YOU ARE NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL UNLESS YOU RETAIN ONE. YOU MAY ALSO REMAIN AN ABSENT CLASS MEMBER. YOU MAY ALSO RETAIN COUNSEL OF YOUR CHOICE.
About Anderson Kill & Olick, P.C.
Anderson Kill's practice areas include Insurance Recovery, Anti-Counterfeiting, Bankruptcy, Commercial Litigation, Corporate & Securities, Employment & Labor Law, Real Estate & Construction, Tax, and Trusts & Estates. The firm's senior attorneys maintain national and international practices from offices in New York, NY, Greenwich, CT, Newark, NJ, Philadelphia, PA, Ventura, CA and Washington, DC. For companies seeking to do business internationally, Anderson Kill, through its membership in Interleges, a consortium of similar law firms in some 20 countries, assures the same high quality of service throughout the world that it provides itself here in the United States.
For more information, please contact:
David E. Wood, Esq.
dwood@andersonkill.com
(805) 288-1300
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