Kerkorian to settle with DaimlerChrysler shareholders

[rickaren]

Kerkorian to settle with DaimlerChrysler shareholders

Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 12:07 PM EST.(Employee News)

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit by former DaimlerChrysler AG shareholders who claimed he sold more than 7 million shares in 1999 based on inside information, Bloomberg reported.

Lawyers for Kerkorian and for the shareholders asked that scheduled proceedings in the case be halted so they can finish documentation of their agreement, according to a Jan. 12 filing in federal court in Los Angeles, the news service reported. U.S. District Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen set a Feb. 8 hearing on the settlement, Bloomberg said.

The shareholders sued Kerkorian and his Tracinda Corp. investment company in 2003, the report noted. They alleged that James Aljian, who helped manage Tracinda’s investments and served on DaimlerChrysler’s shareholder committee board, passed confidential information about the company’s declining cash flow to Kerkorian in 1999, the story said.

Tracinda then sold 7.6 million shares over a three-month period, avoiding $120 million in losses at the expense of other shareholders, according to the complaint, the report said. A federal judge last year approved a class of shareholders who bought DaimlerChrysler common stock on nine different dates from March 19, 1999, to June 11, 1999, the story said. (Bloomberg)