by Structured Settlement Watchdog®
Imperial Holdings shareholders would have earned more by simply buying structured settlement payment rights instead of buying the company stock. The stock's price at the IPO February 7, 2011 was $10.75. It closed at $1.70 on December 2, 2011, an 84% drop! A $1,000,000 investment held until Friday would be worth about $160,000.
On September 27, 2011, after the close of trading, Imperial issued a press release announcing that it had been served with a search warrant issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The Company disclosed that “it and certain of its employees, including its chairman and chief executive officer, and its president and chief operating officer, are under investigation in the District of New Hampshire with respect to its life finance business.
Imperial buys structured settlement payment rights from annuitants as well as life finance. By its own admission in published SEC registration statements, Imperial's structured settlement factoring discount rates are typically in the high teens. While there is nothing illegal about that, it is important to point out that the higher the discount rate the lesser the amount of cash the seller of structured settlement payment rights will receive. Imperial is among those factoring companies who benefit from grabbing the "low hanging fruit" (those sellers who fail to shop around).
Another class action has been commenced in the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County, Florida on behalf of purchasers of the common stock of Imperial Holdings, Inc. pursuant and/or traceable to the Company’s IPO. The latest Complaint alleges that the Registration Statement and Prospectus issued in connection with the IPO were materially false and misleading and/or omitted to state that the Company had engaged in serious wrongdoing in connection with its life finance business, which would expose Imperial and certain of its employees, including its chief executive officer and its chief operating officer, to a criminal investigation by the FBI in conjunction with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire.
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