Numerous class action law firms concentrating on investor rights, consumer rights and enforcement of federal antitrust laws announced that they are investigating potential wrongdoing at Imperial Holdings, Inc. (“Imperial Holdings” or the “Company”) The firms'' websites state that the investigation focuses on whether Imperial Holdings violated federal securities laws by issuing materially false and misleading information about the Company’s true business and financial condition.
Meanwhile the mainstream media frenzy on Imperial Holdings is at fever pitch. The Street, MSNBC, CNBC… you name it!
According to a Bloomberg report this morning there was heavy put option activity prior to the Feds raid of Imperial's Boca Raton office and the announcement by Imperial that its Chairman and others were under investigation regarding its life finance business, 85 times the daily average. An official at one firm which sells option-market analytics opined "This feels like a trade with prior knowledge of a news event, or extraordinarily good timing". Yet a Columbia professor opined that the information could have been picked up in the hallways of the New Hampshire courthouse where the Federal search warrant was obtained and trading on information obtained in such manner is not illegal.
This author believes Imperial Holdings was the first structured settlement cash now pusher to go public. It will be interesting to see investor appetite for an IPO the secondary market segment after this.
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