NEW ORLEANS, May 17, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Kahn Gauthier Swick, LLC ("KGS"), the law firm that filed the first class action lawsuit against Optionable, Inc. ("Optionable" or the "Company") (OTCBB:OPBL), notifies investors that a subsequent class action lawsuit filed by a Connecticut and New York law firm has been voluntarily dismissed. Following this untimely withdrawal, KGS remains the sole law firm actively prosecuting a securities class action lawsuit seeking to recover for losses suffered by shareholders who purchased shares of the Company in connection with its Initial Public Offering ("IPO") in or about May 9, 2005, or who purchased shares thereafter in the open market (the "Class Period"). KGS' lawsuit is pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Civil Action No. 07cv3753.
Optionable shareholders have only 54 days remaining to request to be appointed as a lead plaintiff in this case.
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff in this case, you must move the Court no later than July 10, 2007. Any member of the purported class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. If you would like to discuss your legal rights, you may e-mail or call KGS, without obligation or cost to you. You may contact Managing Partner Lewis Kahn of KGS direct, toll free 1-866-467-1400, ext. 100, or by email at lewis.kahn@kgscounsel.com. To learn more about this case or KGS, you may visit www.kgscounsel.com.
Optionable and certain of its officers and directors are charged with including, or allowing the inclusion of, materially false and misleading statements in the Registration Statement and Prospectus issued in connection with the IPO, in violation of the Securities Act of 1933.
KGS' complaint alleges that, unbeknownst to investors, defendants failed to conduct an adequate due diligence investigation into the Company prior to the IPO, and failed to disclose at the time of the IPO that: (1) two of the Company's board members, including Chairman Mark Nordlicht, and its only purported independent director, Albert Helmig, were actually related parties and board members of a company called Platinum Energy; (2) the Company's customer base suffered from greater concentration than previously reported, with Bank of Montreal directly connected to over 80% of revenues, higher than the 20% to 30% reported; and (3) defendants had conspired with Bank of Montreal ("BMO") brokers to provide false trade data that was designed to avoid reporting hundreds of millions of dollars in trading losses -- losses that, if disclosed, would have terminated the BMO trading relationship.
It was only beginning in late April 2007 -- after defendants sold $28.94 million of their own shares to NYMEX Holdings in a private sale -- that investors learned the truth about the Company. On April 30, 2007, BMO's announcement of over $300 million in options-related losses shed light on the magnitude of Optionable's reliance on BMO for a large portion of its revenues. Days later on May 10, 2007, BMO suspended trading through Optionable and announced that its private forensic accountants had discovered that its own brokers -- who by then had been terminated -- had conspired to under-report trading losses, in order to maintain trading and avoid accountability to BMO.
On this news, Optionable's shares collapsed from just under $5.00 per share on April 30, 2007 to just over $1.00 per share on May 10, 2007 -- a decline of almost 80% in two trading days, on huge volume of tens of millions of shares. Subsequent news has continued to shock investors. On May 12, 2007, CEO Kevin Cassidy resigned, after revelations surfaced that he failed to disclose that he was sentenced to 30 months for a felony conviction on credit card fraud in 1997 and 6 months for income tax evasion in 1993. Days later, on May 14th, NYMEX, owners of 19% of Optionable shares, announced that it was giving up its board seat "to avoid potential conflicts of interest." KGS is continuing its ongoing investigation into Optionable's dramatic decline and welcomes shareholder inquiries.
SPECIAL NOTICE: While federal law does not prohibit other lawyers from "announcing" this class action through the issuance of other press releases, KGS is the law firm that researched, investigated, drafted and filed the securities fraud case against Optionable. If you are an Optionable shareholder who decides to contact one of these lawyers, KGS reminds you to fully interview any such lawyer to assure that they thoroughly understand the facts surrounding the substantive claims KGS has filed in Court. It is critically important that interested parties carefully evaluate any other firm that may be competing with KGS to prosecute the Optionable class action. Critical components of a law firm's ability to successfully prosecute this action and obtain a strong recovery for you include its knowledge of applicable federal securities laws, the resources it will dedicate to prosecution of the case, including the number of lawyers the firm has available for the Optionable class action, AND especially the quality of the firm's work.
More information on this and other class actions can be found on the Class Action Newsline at www.primenewswire.com/ca.