NEW YORK, March 18, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Securities Law Firm of Klayman & Toskes, P.A. ("K&T")(http://www.nasd-law.com) announced today that it is investigating the possibility of taking legal action on behalf of Bear Stearns Shareholders and Employees who lost money in Bear Stearns (NYSE:BSC) stock. Individuals and institutions on the retail level which had large positions in BSC, as well as employees of the company, may have grounds to bring an arbitration claim through the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority ("FINRA"), and seek recovery of the losses they sustained in BSC.
One area of K&T's investigation is whether Bear Stearns violated ERISA law by breaching its fiduciary duties to employees who participated in the company's Employee Stock Ownership Plan ("ESOP"), profit-sharing plan and deferred-compensation plan. The fiduciaries of the company's ESOP may have mismanaged and misallocated the assets of the ESOP by investing the assets in BSC stock when it was no longer prudent to do so. Specifically, Klayman & Toskes is looking into whether the fiduciaries knew or should have known that Bear Stearns concealed its exposure to risky collateralized debt obligations ("CDOs"), sub-prime investments and other low-quality securities, yet continued to invest the employees' assets in BSC stock. "Because of potential ERISA violations, many Bear Stearns employees are really hurting right now. On top of losing money in their investment or retirement accounts, they may be in jeopardy of losing their jobs," said Jahan K. Manasseh, an attorney at Klayman & Toskes.
Mr. Manasseh also noted that individuals and institutions on the retail level have also recently experienced heavy investment losses in BSC stock, and the firm is looking into this situation as well. In one week, the 85-year old brokerage firm's stock declined from $70.59 per share to $2.84 per share. Accordingly, Klayman & Toskes is looking into whether individual and institutional investors were unsuitably over-concentrated in BSC, and whether their brokerage firms failed to implement risk management or hedging strategies to protect their portfolio in the event of a sharp decline.
If you are a Bear Stearns shareholder or employee, or if you have information relevant to our investigation, please contact Steven D. Toskes or Jahan K. Manasseh of Klayman & Toskes, P.A., at 888-997-9956. You may also visit us on the web at http://www.nasd-law.com.
Klayman & Toskes, P.A., an experienced and nationally recognized securities litigation law firm, continues its representation of investors throughout the world in securities arbitration and litigation matters against major Wall Street brokerage firms.