NEW YORK (HedgeWorld.com)–A prominent plaintiffs’ law firm, Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP, announced four class action lawsuits that could put that firm into the thick of the spreading scandal over Edward J. Stern, his Canary hedge fund group and the mutual funds on which Mr. Stern’s funds traded between Oct. 1, 1998 and July 3, 2003.
Milberg Weiss filed one suit on Sept. 8 and each of the others the following day, with the clerk of the Manhattan federal district court.
Although they differ from one another in the mutual fund company defendants named and in the definition of the class of plaintiffs, each lawsuit names hedge fund founder Edward J. Stern as a defendant and each names Canary Capital Partners LLC, Canary Investment Management LLC, Canary Capital Partners Ltd. and various John Does.
The first of the lawsuits named Bank of America Corp. and Banc of America Capital Management LLC as defendants. That complaint accordingly defines its class of plaintiffs as consisting of purchasers of the securities of the associated Nations Funds family of funds.
One of the lawsuits filed on Sept. 9 names, rather, Strong Financial Corp. and Strong Capital Management Inc. as defendants. That lawsuit, accordingly, defines its class of plaintiffs as consisting of purchasers of the securities of the Strong Funds family of funds during the class period.
A separate lawsuit, while again naming the Canary entities and the John Does, also names the Janus Capital Group Inc., Janus Capital Corp., etc., and defines the class of plaintiffs as the purchasers of the securities of the Janus Funds family.