BankAtlantic Liable for Stock Fraud, Jury Concludes - Bloomberg

BankAtlantic Liable for Stock Fraud, Jury Concludes - Bloomberg: "BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. executives misled shareholders about the riskiness of the bank’s real- estate-loan portfolio during 2007’s economic decline, a Miami jury ruled in a stock-fraud case filed by investors.
Jurors in federal court deliberated about three days before finding today that BankAtlantic officials ignored lending guidelines in approving land-development loans and then misrepresented problems with those deals in press conferences and conference calls. The panel ordered BankAtlantic to pay $2.41 a share in damages to investors, who had sought as much as $3.52 a share.
“The jurors did not hesitate to hold the defendants accountable for having made false and misleading statements about the risky loans,” said Mark Arisohn, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “It was important for shareholders to be vindicated.”"