Lawsuit Overview
April 7, 2010 - The court dismissed the case with prejudice.
February 22, 2010 - The court granted defendants' motions to dismiss.
December 18, 2009 - Defendants filed motions to dismiss.
December 4, 2009 - Lead plaintiffs and lead counsel were appointed and all cases were consolidated.
December 1, 2009 - Another lead plaintiff motion was filed.
November 9, 2009 - Lead plaintiff motion was filed.
September 29, 2009 - The plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of one defendant.
September 8, 2009 - An investor in shares of Pacific Capital Bancorp (NASDAQ: PCBC) filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on behalf of purchasers of the common stock of Pacific Capital Bancorp (NASDAQ: PCBC) between April 30, 2009 and July 30, 2009, against Pacific Capital Bancorp and others over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws.
According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges that Pacific Capital Bancorp and certain of its senior executive officers violated the Exchange Act sections 10(b) and 20(a) by issuing between April 30, 2009 and July 30, 2009 materially false and misleading statements and/or concealed material information relating to Pacific Capital Bancorp’s reserves for losses on its loan portfolio. The plaintiff also alleges that a stock analyst, named defendant in the complaint, covering Pacific Capital Bancorp issued a “buy” rating on Pacific Capital Bancorp’s common stock despite knowingly or recklessly failing to conduct a standard analysis of Pacific Capital Bancorp’s banking operations that would have revealed that it was not appropriate to issue a “buy” rating. The plaintiff alleges that Pacific Capital Bancorp’s common stock traded at artificially inflated levels between April 30, 2009, when Pacific Capital Bancorp reported that it maintained its loan loss provision at a very high level, through July 30, 2009, when Pacific Capital Bancorp admitted that it had not adequately reserved for loan losses. According to the complaint, as the truth about Pacific Capital Bancorp’s financial condition became known to the market, the price of its common stock declined from a closing price of $6.94 per share on April 30, 2009, to a closing price of $2.12 per share on July 31, 2009.
Pacific Capital Bancorp is located in Santa Barbara, California, is a community bank holding company providing full service banking, including consumer and commercial lending, trust and investment advisory services, and other consumer and business banking products through its subsidiaries’ retail branches, commercial and wealth management centers, and other distribution channels to consumers and businesses primarily located in the central coast of California. Pacific Capital Bancorp had $9.574billion in total assets in 2008. Shares of Pacific Capital Bancorp (NASDAQ: PCBC) traded recently at $2.19 per share, down from $25 per share in September 2008 and over $30 per share in 2007.