Contact Information: Contact: Lewis Kahn KGS 1-866-467-1400, ext. 100 email: lewis.kahn@kgscounsel.com
INVESTOR ALERT: KGS Announces Initial Filing of Shareholder Class Action Lawsuit Against Optionable, Inc.
| Source: Kahn Gauthier Swick, LLC
NEW ORLEANS, LA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- May 11, 2007 -- Kahn Gauthier Swick, LLC ("KGS") has filed
the first class action lawsuit against Optionable, Inc. ("Optionable" or
the "Company") (OTCBB : OPBL ), in the United States District Court for the
Southern District of New York, Civil Action No. 07cv3753, on behalf of
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"). No class has
yet been certified in this action.
UNTIL A CLASS IS CERTIFIED, YOU ARE NOT PERSONALLY REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL
UNLESS YOU RETAIN AN ATTORNEY.
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.
The 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.
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.
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.