NEW YORK, July 22, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP (www.kaplanfox.com) filed a class action suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana against OCA, Inc. ("OCA" or the "Company") (NYSE:OCA) and certain of its officers and directors, on behalf of all persons or entities who purchased the publicly traded common stock of OCA between May 18, 2004 and June 7, 2005 (the "Class Period").
The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 by publicly issuing a series of false and misleading statements regarding the Company's financial condition, thus causing OCA's shares to trade at artificially inflated levels.
On March 17, 2005, OCA announced that it was delaying the filing of its annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004 because the Company had "not yet completed the closing procedures required to prepare and finalize its annual financial statements or its assessment of internal control over financial reporting under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002." On April 15, 2005, the Company announced that CFO David M. Verret would resign his position with the Company in May 2005.
On June 7, 2005, OCA disclosed that "(t)he Company anticipates further delay in completing its 2004 financial close process and audit and in filing the Form 10-K and Form 10-Q . . ." The Company further revealed that "it has identified certain errors in its calculation of patient receivables reported during 2004, and has determined that the amount of patient receivables reported at each of March 31, June 30 and September 30, 2004 was overstated by material amounts (and that) . . . (t)he Company's Audit Committee has concluded that, due to these overstatements, these previously issued quarterly financial statements will need to be restated and should no longer be relied upon." OCA's Board of Directors "has appointed a Special Committee to review certain journal entries recorded in the Company's general ledger (and) . . . is reviewing certain alleged changes in data provided to the Company's independent registered public accounting firm."
The Company also announced that "(p)ending completion of the internal review, the Company has placed Bartholomew F. Palmisano, Jr., the Company's Chief Operating Officer, on administrative leave."
On June 7, 2005, as a result of these disclosures, the price of OCA common stock declined from $4.03 to $2.48 per share, a decline of approximately 38%, on unusually heavy volume.
If you are a member of the proposed Class, you may move the court no later than August 8, 2005 to serve as a lead plaintiff for the Class. You need not seek to become a lead plaintiff in order to share in any possible recovery.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of the proposed Class and is represented by Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP. Our firm, with offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New Jersey, has many years of experience in prosecuting investor class actions and actions involving financial fraud. For more information about Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP, or to review a copy of the complaint filed in this action, you may visit our website at www.kaplanfox.com.
If you have any questions about this Notice, the action and /or the lead plaintiff motion process, please e-mail us at mail@kaplanfox.com or contact:
Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP Frederic S. Fox Joel B. Strauss Jeffrey P. Campisi 805 Third Avenue, 22nd Floor New York, New York 10022 (800) 290-1952 (212) 687-1980 Fax: (212) 687-7714 E-mail address: mail@kaplanfox.com Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer LLP Laurence D. King 555 Montgomery Street, Suite 1501 San Francisco, California 94111 (415) 772-4700 Fax: 415-772-4707 E-mail address: mail@kaplanfox.com
More information on this and other class actions can be found on the Class Action Newsline at www.primezone.com/ca