Globe and Mail – Lawyers for Biovail Corp. shareholders said Tuesday they have launched a $4-billion (U.S.) lawsuit against Bank of America Securities, hedge fund S.A.C. Capital Management LLC, andothers for allegedly spreading false information in a \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cshort-selling bear attack\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d on the Canadian drug company.<\/p>\n
The move comes after Biovail itself launched a $4.6-billion lawsuit Feb. 22 against the Wall Street hedge fund and industry analysts in what it alleged was a wide-ranging conspiracy to attack vulnerable companies.<\/p>\n
The new class action charges the fund with \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cpaying, pressuring, and otherwise influencing purportedly independent analysts to disseminate materially false and misleading information\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d about Biovail.<\/p>\n
The action was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey by Lampf, Lipkind, Prupis & Petigrow on behalf of unnamed shareholders.<\/p>\n
The suit names as defendants S.A.C. Capital Management and its founder Steven Cohen, along with Scottsdale Arizona-based Gradient Analytics (formerly known as Camelback Research Alliance), Banc of America Securities L.L.C. and one of its securities analysts David Maris.<\/p>\n