Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP Announces the Filing of a Class Action Lawsuit Against MBIA, Inc.
May 02 2005 - 10:15AM
PR Newswire (US)
Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP Announces the Filing
of a Class Action Lawsuit Against MBIA, Inc. SAN FRANCISCO, May 2
/PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann &
Bernstein, LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed
in the United States District Court for the Southern District of
New York on behalf of shareholders who purchased or otherwise
acquired publicly traded shares of MBIA, Inc. ("MBIA") between
August 5, 2003 and March 30, 2005. Shares of MBIA common stock
trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "MBI." On
November 18, 2004, MBIA announced that it had received subpoenas
from the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") and the New
York Attorney General's Office ("NYAG") requesting information with
respect to non-traditional or loss mitigation insurance products
developed, offered or sold by MBIA to third parties from January 1,
1998 to the present. On March 8, 2005, MBIA announced that it had
decided to restate its financial statements for 1998 through 2003
to correct the accounting treatment for two reinsurance agreements
that MBIA entered into in 1998 with Zurich Reinsurance North
America, which later was re-named Converium Re upon its divesture
by Zurich Financial Services in 2001. The restated transactions
overstated net income by $54 million during the period 1998 through
2003 by failing to record a loss related to MBIA's insurance of
bonds issued by the Allegheny Health, Education and Research
Foundation ("Allegheny"). On March 9, 2005, MBIA announced that the
U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York was
conducting its own investigation into losses suffered by MBIA as a
result of its insurance of the Allegheny bonds. On March 30, 2005,
the SEC and NYAG supplemented the November 2004 subpoenas with
requests for documents related to MBIA's accounting treatment of
advisory fees, its methodology for determining loss reserves and
case reserves, instances of purchase of credit default protection
in itself, and documents relating to Channel Reinsurance Ltd.
("Channel Re"), a reinsurance company launched in 2004 by MBIA,
PartnerRe Ltd., RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd., and Koch Financial
Corporation. On April 8, 2005, PartnerRe Ltd. and RenaissanceRe
Holdings Ltd. announced that they had received subpoenas from the
SEC and NYAG seeking information relating to Channel Re. News of
these events have caused MBIA's common stock price to drop from a
class period high of $67.34 on March 3, 2004 to $52.28 on March 31,
2005, one day after MBIA announced that the SEC and NYAG had
supplemented the subpoenas served on MBIA in November 2004. This
decline in stock price represents a $2.0 billion reduction of
MBIA's market capitalization from its high point in the class
period. Shares of MBIA closed at $52.95 per share on April 25,
2005. Note: MBIA Shareholders contact Bruce W. Leppla, Esq., 275
Battery Street, 30th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111, 415-956-1000,
ext. 3381, for more details or visit
http://www.lieffcabrasersecurities.com/ . Lieff Cabraser Heimann
& Bernstein, LLP is a national law firm of over 60 lawyers with
offices in San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Beverly
Hills/Los Angeles and Nashville. Our attorneys are recognized for
the successful prosecution of lawsuits involving violations of the
federal securities laws by major corporations and their directors
and officers. For more detailed information about Lieff, Cabraser,
Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, please visit our website at
http://www.lieffcabrasersecurities.com/ . DATASOURCE: Lieff,
Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP CONTACT: investors, Bruce W.
Leppla, Esq. of MBIA, +1-415-956-1000, ext. 3381, or Web site:
http://www.lieffcabrasersecurities.com/ Web site:
http://www.lieffcabraser.com/
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