December 11, 2020 - An investor, who purchased shares of Qiwi plc (NASDAQ: QIWI), filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws by Qiwi plc in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements made between March 28, 2019 and December 9, 2020.

Cyprus based Qiwi plc, together with its subsidiaries, operates electronic online payment systems primarily in the Russia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Belarus, Romania, the United Arab Emirates, and internationally. Qiwi plc reported that its annual Total Revenue rose from over 30.61 billion RUB in 2018 to over 39.33 billion RUB in 2019, and that its EBIT increased from over4.47 billion RUB in 2018 to over 7.29 billion RUB in 2019.

On December 10, 2020, Qiwi plc issued a press release entitled QIWI (QIWI) Fined by Bank of Russia, Restricts Operations. The press release stated, in relevant part, that [f]rom July to December 2020, the Central Bank of Russia (‘CBR'), acting in its supervisory capacity, performed a routine scheduled audit of Qiwi Bank JSC (‘Qiwi Bank') for the period of July 2018 to September 2020 and, in the course of this audit, has identified certain violations and deficiencies relating primarily to reporting and record-keeping requirements. . . . The monetary fine imposed on Qiwi Bank as a result of these findings was RUB 11 million, or approximately USD 150,000. Qiwi further disclosed that as part of its instruction letter setting forth the findings of the audit, the CBR introduced certain restrictions with respect to Qiwi Bank's operations, including, effective from December 7, 2020, the suspension or limitation of most types of payments to foreign merchants and money transfers to pre-paid cards from corporate accounts. Shares of Qiwi plc (NASDAQ: QIWI) declined from $20.84 per share on August 10, 2020 to as low as $10.17 per share on December 10, 2020.

According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges on behalf of purchasers of Qiwi plc (NASDAQ: QIWI) common shares between March 28, 2019 and December 9, 2020, that the defendants violated Federal Securities Laws.

More specifically, the plaintiff claims that between March 28, 2019 and December 9, 2020, the defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that Qiwi’s internal controls related to reporting and record-keeping were ineffective, that consequently, the Central Bank of Russia would impose a monetary fine upon the Company and impose restrictions upon the Company’s ability to make payments to foreign merchants and transfer money to pre-paid cards, and that as a result, Defendants’ public statements were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.