Class action suit filed against Elan Corporation PLC

NEW YORK - A class action complaint has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, on behalf of all persons or entities who purchased Elan Corporation PLC between April 23, 2001 and January 29, 2002.<br> <br> Elan, Donal J. Geaney, Thomas G. Lynch, and Shane M. Cooke are named as defendants in the action. <br> <br> The Complaint alleges that Elan, an Irish pharmaceutical corporation, and three of its top officers misled the investing public during the Class Period through improper accounting practices that seriously distorted the Company&#39;s financial results. Specifically, it is alleged that Elan improperly recorded as revenue investments it made in joint ventures which the Company controlled, and improperly recorded proceeds from the sales of entire product lines as product revenue, rather than as one-time gains. <br> <br> On January 30, 2002, The Wall Street Journal published a detailed article about Elan&#39;s accounting practices, with comments from the SEC&#39;s former chief accountant questioning the legitimacy of Elan&#39;s reported financial condition. On this news, the ADRs in Elan, which had traded as high as $65.00 per ADR during the Class Period, fell nearly 17% in a single day and traded as low as $22.50 per ADR. <br> <br> More recently, on February 7, 2002, Elan revealed an on-going investigation by the SEC into the Company&#39;s accounting practices. <br>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2002/2/199052