NEW YORK--(Business Wire)--
Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP ("Coughlin Stoia")
(http://www.csgrr.com/cases/verasun/) today announced that a class action has
been commenced in the United States District Court for the Southern District of
New York on behalf of purchasers of the common stock of VeraSun Energy Corp.
("VeraSun") (NYSE:VSUNQ.PK) between March 12, 2008 and September 16, 2008,
inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to pursue remedies under the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act"). VeraSun is not named in this action
as a defendant because it filed for bankruptcy protection on October 31, 2008.
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60
days from today. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions
concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff`s
counsel, Samuel H. Rudman or David A. Rosenfeld of Coughlin Stoia at
800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at djr@csgrr.com. If you are a
member of this Class, you can view a copy of the complaint as filed or join this
class action online at http://www.csgrr.com/cases/verasun/. Any member of the
putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of
their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.
The complaint charges certain of VeraSun`s former executives with violations of
the Exchange Act. VeraSun engages in the production and sale of ethanol and its
co-products in the United States.
The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, defendants failed to
disclose material adverse facts about the Company`s true financial condition,
business and prospects. Specifically, the complaint alleges that defendants
failed to disclose the following adverse facts, among others: (i) VeraSun was,
in part, a speculative commodities trader in addition to an ethanol producer;
(ii) VeraSun engaged in speculative and risky derivate transactions that exposed
the Company to substantial financial and liquidity risk; (iii) VeraSun
experienced substantial loses on speculative derivative transactions causing
margin pressures on the Company; (iv) as a result of margin pressures from bad
speculative derivative transactions, the Company sold out of a large short
position in corn and incurred substantial losses; (v) the Company entered into
highly risky "accumulator" contracts that obligated VeraSun to purchase
increasing amounts of corn after the price of corn fell in price per bushel; and
(vi) VeraSun`s financial condition and especially its liquidity were negatively
impacted as a result of speculative commodity transactions, ultimately causing
the Company to file for bankruptcy.
On September 16, 2008, VeraSun announced that it commenced a public offering of
20 million shares of its common stock to raise money for "general corporate
purposes." The true purpose of this public offering was to raise capital in an
effort to prevent a disastrous impact from the huge losses experienced by the
Company as a result of its speculative trading and risky bets on the price of
corn. In response to the Company`s announcement on September 16, 2008, shares of
the Company`s stock fell $3.81 per share, or 70%, from a close of $5.22 per
share before the announcement, to close at $1.41 per share on September 17,
2008, on extremely heavy trading volume.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of VeraSun common
stock during the Class Period (the "Class"). The plaintiff is represented by
Coughlin Stoia, which has expertise in prosecuting investor class actions and
extensive experience in actions involving financial fraud.
Coughlin Stoia, a 190-lawyer firm with offices in San Diego, San Francisco, Los
Angeles, New York, Boca Raton, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Atlanta, is
active in major litigations pending in federal and state courts throughout the
United States and has taken a leading role in many important actions on behalf
of defrauded investors, consumers, and companies, as well as victims of human
rights violations. The Coughlin Stoia Web site (http://www.csgrr.com) has more
information about the firm.
Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP
Samuel H. Rudman, 800-449-4900
David A. Rosenfeld
djr@csgrr.com
Copyright Business Wire 2009
