SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 03, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, a national investor-rights law firm, announces the filing of a securities fraud class action lawsuit against Third Avenue Management LLC. (Other: TFCIX, TFCVX) related to The Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund, and alerts investors there is a March 29, 2016 lead plaintiff deadline.
If you suffered losses because of your purchases of Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund between March 1, 2013 and December 10, 2015, or have information that will help our continuing investigation contact Hagens Berman Partner Reed Kathrein, who is leading the firm’s investigation by calling 510-725-3000, emailing TFCIX@hbsslaw.com or visiting https://www.hbsslaw.com/cases/TFCIX. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and investors have until March 29, 2016 to move the court to participate as a lead plaintiff.
The complaint alleges that Defendants violated the Securities Act of 1933 because the prospectuses and registration statements of their fixed income mutual fund contained material false or misleading statements regarding the Fund's liquidity. Third Avenue touted that the Focused Credit Fund was an open-end fund, which allow investors to redeem their shares daily. These funds must maintain assets that are sufficiently liquid to meet shareholder redemptions.
According to the lawsuit, the Third Avenue Focused Credit Fund promised investors that it would place no more than 15% of its assets in illiquid securities, which would support its position as an open-end fund. Yet analysis of the Fund's holdings in 2013, 2014, and 2015 revealed that the Fund consistently held more than 15% of its net assets in illiquid securities. The Fund's excessive illiquidity meant that it could not promptly sell assets to meet growing redemptions without unloading them at fire sale prices, leading it to suspend redemptions and shut down the Fund on December 10, 2015, damaging investors.
Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Third Avenue should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new SEC whistleblower program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 510-725-3000 or email TFCIX@hbsslaw.com.
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