WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (Legal Newsline) – A state agency that manages retirement funds for public employees alleges that it lost millions after purchasing notes for a Brazil-based company.
Washington State Investment Board filed a complaint on Oct. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Odebrecht S.A., Construtora Norberto Odebrecht S.A. and Odebrecht Finance LTD for alleged violation of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that between Oct. 22, 2012, and Feb. 4, 2015, it purchased 163 million units of bonds through four different bond offerings based in large part on the defendants' financial results.
The defendants allegedly claimed that the contracts were secured through a competitive bidding process but unbeknownst to the public, plaintiff and the class, the secret to defendants' success was from an alleged "massive bribery and kickback scheme involving hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit payments that it used to secure its government contracts," the suit states.
The suit states that the notes have "plummeted in value," causing the plaintiff to lose tens of millions of dollars.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks judgment for compensatory and punitive damages, costs, expenses incurred, and such other and further relief as the court may deem just and proper. It is represented by Samuel H. Rudman, Douglas R. Britton and Matthew J. Balotta of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP in Melville, New York and San Diego.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Case number 1:17-cv-08118-PGG