Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP Files Class Action Suit Against Advanta Corp.
15 October 2009 - 8:24AM
Business Wire
Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP (“Coughlin
Stoia”) (http://www.csgrr.com/cases/advanta/) today announced that
a class action has been commenced on behalf of an institutional
investor in the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania on behalf of purchasers of Advanta Corp.
(“Advanta”) (NASDAQ:ADVNA) (NASDAQ:ADVNB) Class A and/or Class B
common stock during the period between October 31, 2006 and
November 27, 2007 (the “Class Period”).
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court
no later than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this
action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights
or interests, please contact plaintiff’s counsel, Darren Robbins of
Coughlin Stoia at 800-449-4900 or 619-231-1058, or via e-mail at
djr@csgrr.com. If you are a member of this class, you can view a
copy of the complaint as filed or join this class action online at
http://www.csgrr.com/cases/advanta/. Any member of the putative
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.
The complaint charges Advanta and certain of its officers and
directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Advanta was formerly one of the nation’s largest issuers of
MasterCard and some Visa credit cards to small businesses and
professionals in the United States, through Advanta Bank Corp., a
subsidiary of Advanta.
The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants
issued materially false and misleading statements regarding the
Company’s business and financial results. Specifically, the
complaint alleges that defendants engaged in improper behavior that
harmed Advanta’s investors by failing to disclose the impact of the
economic environment and the deteriorating credit trends on its
business and that the Company failed to adequately and timely
record losses for its impaired loans and customer delinquencies,
causing its financial results to be materially false. Defendants
also concealed the adverse effects the Company’s manipulations of
its cash rewards program was having on its business. As a result of
defendants’ false statements, Advanta’s stock traded at
artificially inflated prices during the Class Period, reaching a
high of $34.07 per share on June 19, 2007.
Then, on November 27, 2007, Advanta held a conference call with
analysts and investors to discuss the Company’s business
performance. Advanta announced that due to the volatility of the
economy, guidance for 2008 would not be released. Additionally,
since the release of the third quarter 2007 results on October 25,
2007, a higher percentage of customers had become delinquent on
their credit card payments and a lower percentage of customers made
payments, indicating a trend of charge-offs. After these
disclosures, Advanta stock dropped, closing on November 27, 2007 at
$11.06 per share, and falling to as low as $9.35 per share on
November 28, 2007, a decline of 72% from Advanta’s Class Period
high of $34.07 per share in June 2007.
According to the complaint, the true facts, which were known by
the defendants but concealed from the investing public during the
Class Period, were as follows: (a) Advanta’s assets contained tens
of millions of dollars worth of impaired credit card receivables
for which the Company had not accrued losses; (b) prior to and
during the Class Period, Advanta had been extremely aggressive in
granting credit to customers without verifying the customers’
ability to pay, to such a degree that by the summer of 2009,
Advanta customers’ default rate would be almost six times worse
than industry average; (c) Advanta’s manipulation of its cash
rewards program angered customers and caused the Company to lose
good, creditworthy customers; (d) Advanta’s credit receivables were
unduly risky due to the Company’s practice of issuing credit cards
to small business owners without, in many instances, verifying
income; (e) defendants failed to properly account for Advanta’s
continuing delinquent customers and the credit trends in the
Company’s portfolio, resulting ultimately in large charges to
reflect impairments; and (f) the Company was not on track to be
profitable in 2008.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers
of Advanta Class A and/or Class B common stock during the Class
Period (the “Class”). The plaintiff is represented by Coughlin
Stoia, which has expertise in prosecuting investor class actions
and extensive experience in actions involving financial fraud.
Coughlin Stoia, a 190-lawyer firm with offices in San Diego, San
Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boca Raton, Washington, D.C.,
Philadelphia and Atlanta, is active in major litigations pending in
federal and state courts throughout the United States and has taken
a leading role in many important actions on behalf of defrauded
investors, consumers, and companies, as well as victims of human
rights violations. The Coughlin Stoia Web site
(http://www.csgrr.com) has more information about the firm.
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