The first American investor filed a lawsuit against the Credit Suisse Group, due to the bank’s recent difficulties, indicating in his lawsuit that the company overestimated its financial prospects for shareholders.
The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in federal court in Camden, New Jersey, alleges that the bank made “materially false and misleading statements” in its 2021 annual report, according to Bloomberg, which was seen by Al Arabiya.net.
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The lawsuit was brought by Rosen Law Firm, which specializes in representing individual shareholders in such cases, and was also the first to file a lawsuit against Silicon Valley Bank, after it was placed in receivership last week.
In its 2021 annual report, Credit Suisse did not identify material weaknesses in its internal controls that have since surfaced, according to the complaint.
After the February 9 release of the bank’s fourth-quarter 2022 report, the price of Credit Suisse’s American Deposit Certificates fell by 15.6%, according to the lawsuit.
The stock fell further after news broke in early March that the bank would delay publication of its 2022 annual report. Credit Suisse eventually disclosed on March 14 that it had identified “material weaknesses in the bank’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2022 and 2021”. according to the complaint.
The lawsuit includes an allegation that chairman Axel Lehmann said in various media outlets in December that outflows had “essentially stopped” and few customers had left, when the bank was already experiencing large outflows throughout the fourth quarter.
Lehman was named as a defendant in the complaint, along with current and former employees.
