Sanderson Farms, an integrated poultry processing company, has been hit by a class action lawsuit filed in a US district court in New York for allegedly making misleading statements to its investors.
Pomerantz, a law firm with presence in key US cities, has filed the class action suit in this regard in the US District Court, Southern District of New York.
The law firm is seeking to recover damages from the company for alleged violations of the federal securities laws by the poultry processor.
It filed the class action lawsuit on behalf of investors who had bought the shares between 17 December 2013 and 6 October 2016.
Based in Laurel in Mississippi, Sanderson Farms processes chicken and distributes them as fresh, frozen, and prepared products throughout the US.
The lawsuit also alleges the poultry firm of making materially false statements besides failing to disclose material adverse facts about its business, operations, and prospects.
It calims that Sanderson Farms failed to disclose that it had systematically colluded with industry peers in fixing prices in the broiler-chicken market and violated the federal antitrust laws.
The company's revenue during the period is also alleged to have come from its illegal conduct.
Pomerantz said that the alleged fraud by Sanderson Farms, Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms and Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation had come to light when a New York based Maplevale Farms filed an antitrust class action complaint against them.
The class action from Maplevale alleged that the poultry companies had colluded and conspired since 2008 to manipulate broiler chicken prices in violation of the Sherman Act.
Pomerantz said: "Other antitrust lawsuits quickly followed. On 4 October 2016, a group of individual consumers filed an antitrust class action complaint in US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (the “Monahan Complaint”) against Sanderson Farms and several of its industry peers, including Tyson, alleging violations of the Sherman Act."
With offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, the Pomerantz Firm is one of the major firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation.
