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 “short-selling bear attack†on the Canadian drug company.
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.
The new class action charges the fund with “paying, pressuring, and otherwise influencing purportedly independent analysts to disseminate materially false and misleading information†about Biovail.
The action was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey by Lampf, Lipkind, Prupis & Petigrow on behalf of unnamed shareholders.
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.
