WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rigrodsky & Long, P.A.:
- Do you, or did you, own shares of AmTrust Financial Services, Inc. (NASDAQ GS: AFSI)?
- Did you purchase your shares before February 15, 2011, or between February 15, 2011 and December 11, 2013, inclusive?
- Did you lose money in your investment in AmTrust Financial Services, Inc.?
- Do you want to discuss your rights?
Rigrodsky & Long, P.A., including former Special Assistant United States Attorney, Timothy J. MacFall, announces that a complaint has been filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of all persons or entities that purchased the common stock of AmTrust Financial Services, Inc. (“AmTrust” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ GS: AFSI) between February 15, 2011 and December 11, 2013, inclusive (the “Class Period”), alleging violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 against the Company and certain of its officers (the “Complaint”).
If you purchased shares of AmTrust during the Class Period, or purchased shares prior to the Class Period and still hold AmTrust, and wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact Timothy J. MacFall, Esquire or Peter Allocco of Rigrodsky & Long, P.A., 825 East Gate Boulevard, Suite 300, Garden City, NY at (888) 969-4242, by e-mail to info@rl-legal.com, or at: http://www.rigrodskylong.com/investigations/amtrust-financial-services-inc-afsi.
AmTrust underwrites and provides property and casualty insurance in the United States and internationally to niche customer groups that it believes are generally underserved within the broader insurance market. The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, defendants made materially false and misleading statements, and omitted materially adverse facts, about the Company’s business, operations and prospects. Specifically, the Complaint alleges that the defendants concealed from the investing public that: (i) the Company manipulated its loan loss reserves in order to inflate reported earnings; (ii) the Company manipulated its deferred tax liabilities; (iii) the Company underestimated the discount rates for its life settlement contracts in an effort to inflate its reported assets and total stockholder’s equity; (iv) the Company lacked adequate internal and financial controls; and (v) as a result of the foregoing, the Company’s statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. As a result of defendants’ false and misleading statements, the Company’s stock traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period.
According to the Complaint, on December 12, 2013, GeoInvesting published a report entitled, “AmTrust Financial Services: A House of Cards?” which exposed the truth regarding the Company’s financial performance. Among other things, the report found that “[a] cross section of public documents... shows that [AmTrust] appears to be excluding losses of wholly-owned subsidiaries in its SEC filings;” “[p]ress releases contain different accounts than those reported in SEC filings, leading us to question the [C]ompany’s internal controls over financial reporting;” and that “[w]e conclude that [AmTrust] is worth between $3.87 and $13.00 per share.”
On this news, shares in AmTrust dropped more than 12%, closing at $33.67 per share on December 12, 2013, on unusually heavy trading volume.
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than April 7, 2014. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member’s claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. Any member of the proposed 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.
While Rigrodsky & Long, P.A. did not file the Complaint in this matter, the firm, with offices in Wilmington, Delaware and Garden City, New York, regularly litigates securities class, derivative and direct actions, shareholder rights litigation and corporate governance litigation, including claims for breach of fiduciary duty and proxy violations in the Delaware Court of Chancery and in state and federal courts throughout the United States.
Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
