Pursuant to a hearing held on February 9, 2007, the Court granted final approval
of the settlement obtained from Williams and its auditor, Ernst & Young, for $311 million, and also approved the
plan of allocation for distribution of settlement proceeds. Click
here to view the Court's
Judgment approving the settlement.
Click here to view the Court’s
Order
Approving Plan of Allocation of Settlement Proceeds.
IN ORDER TO BE ELIGIBLE TO SHARE IN THE BENEFITS OF THE SETTLEMENT, CLASS MEMBERS MUST
HAVE SUBMITTED A COMPLETED
AND SIGNED PROOF OF CLAIM FORM POSTMARKED NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 16, 2007.
Click on the following links to view a copy of:
June 13, 2006 - Lead Plaintiffs Announce $311 Million
Settlement in Williams Securities Litigation
On June 13, 2006, BLB&G announced an agreement to
settle the litigation against all defendants for $311
million in cash. BLB&G is Court-appointed Lead Counsel in the action and
represents Court-appointed Lead Plaintiffs, the Arkansas Teacher Retirement
System ("Arkansas Teachers") and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board
("Ontario Teachers").
This settlement comes after intensive litigation and shortly before trial. As
part of this action, BLB&G engaged in a massive discovery effort which included
taking more than 150 depositions and reviewing in excess of 18 million pages of
documents. At the time of the settlement, Lead Plaintiffs and BLB&G were
preparing for trial which was scheduled for August 2006.
Commenting on the
settlement, partner Chad Johnson stated: “This
recovery of $311 million is an
extraordinary result. It is among the largest recoveries ever in a securities
class action in which the corporate defendant did not restate its financial
results. This settlement is also proof that the combination of a vigorous
litigation strategy and committed institutional Lead Plaintiffs results in
outstanding recoveries.”
Background
The Consolidated
Amended Complaint (the “Complaint”) was filed on October 7, 2002 and alleged securities
claims pursuant to Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and
Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933. The Section 10(b) claims were brought
on behalf of purchasers of Williams’ common stock in the open market and the
Section 11 claims on behalf of purchasers of securities in the following four
securities offerings: (i) $1.3 billion secondary common stock offering in
January 2001; (ii) $1.2 billion common stock offering in August 2001 in
connection with the merger with Barrett Resources Corp.; (iii) $1.5 billion
Notes offering in August 2001; and (iv) $1.1 billion offering of FELINE PACS
equity securities in January 2002. The Complaint was filed on behalf of a class
of investors who purchased these securities between July 24, 2000 and July 22,
2002 and were injured thereby.
The allegations in the
Complaint relate to Williams’ former telecommunications subsidiary Williams
Communications, Inc. (“WCG”) and Williams’ energy trading operation, known at
the time as Energy Marketing & Trading (“EM&T”). The allegations with respect to
WCG concern Williams’ alleged failure to timely disclose that it would have to
incur multi-billion dollar losses in connection with Williams’ guarantees of
certain WCG financial obligations.
In connection with Williams’ EM&T business,
the Complaint alleges that Williams manipulated the reported value of its
long-term energy contracts in the midst of the California energy crisis in 2001.
Based on these valuations, Lead Plaintiffs alleged that Williams inflated
earnings by hundreds of millions of dollars during the Class Period.
Firm partners
Chad Johnson,
Blair Nicholas and Mark Lebovitch, Senior Counsel
Beata Gocyk-Farber, and associate
Brett Middleton are responsible
for prosecuting this action.
