Half a dozen lawsuits filed against Satyam in US

A new class action lawsuit was filed in the US courts on Friday against Satyam Computer, against which already about half-a-dozen such suits have been filed on
behalf of the thousands of the investors in the American Depository Shares of the Indian IT firm.

Law firm Brodsky & Smith LLC on Friday announced that it has filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all persons who purchased ADSs of Satyam Computer between January 6, 2004 and January 6, 2009.
    
Other law firms having filed class action law suits against Satyam include Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP, Harwood Feffer LLP, Sarraf Gentile LLP, Vianale & Vianale LLP and Izard Nobel LLP.
    
When asked about the specific damages sought in the lawsuit, Vianale & Vianale LLP's lawyer Keneth J Vianale said that it could be in hundreds of millions of dollars.
    
Vianale said in an emailed statement: "We have not alleged a specific damages amount that we are seeking. That will be a subject of expert testimony.
   
"However, in cases of this sort, it is not unusual for the damages to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars." 

The class action lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, where the complaint has alleged that Satyam and its top officials
"violated federal securities laws by issuing a series of material misrepresentations to the market, thereby artificially inflating the price of Satyam."
    
This is the sixth class action lawsuit filed in the US since Wednesday, when Satyam's founder-chairman Ramalinga Raju resigned after disclosing massive financial irregularities to the tune of over a billion dollar at the company over several
years. 

In these lawsuits, Satyam Computer has been charged with duping thousands of American investors of billions of dollars by artificially inflating share price.
    
Demanding trial by the jury against Satyam Computer, its chairman Ramalinga Raju, managing director and CEO B Rama Raju, the complainants have said that each of them is "liable as a participant in a fraudulent scheme and course of business that operated as a fraud or deceit..." 

The IT firm has also deceived the investing public regarding Satyam's business, its finances and the intrinsic value of shares, leading investors to purchase shares at
artificially inflated prices, said the class action suit filed by law firm Vianale & Vianale LLP on behalf of shareholders.

Glancy Binkow & Goldberg, Federman & Sherwood, Harwood Feffer and Izard Nobel have filed their class action lawsuits in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
    
Identical suits filed by Vianale & Vianale and Sarraf Gentile are pending in the Manhattan federal court. 

"A lawsuit seeking class action status has been filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of those who purchased the ADRs of Satyam Computer between January 6, 2004 and January 6, 2009," Izard Nobel LLP said.

The class action complaint filed by Vianale & Vianale LLP in Manhattan Federal Court said that there are thousands of such shareholders throughout the US who have been affected by "a series of false and misleading statements, containing materially inaccurate financial information about the company, which served to artificially inflate the value of its ADSs.

"When the truth was revealed, the company's ADSs lost nearly their entire value and investors lost billions of dollars as a result," the suit filed by Vianale said.