According to a press release there is currently an ongoing investigation on behalf of former and current employees of Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) concerning potential Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) Breach of Fiduciary Duty.

Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) has been accused of securities fraud and according to a press release under ERISA employees (former and current) of Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE: S) may be eligible to file a ERISA complaint for putting stock options at risk if they can prove their employer violated its fiduciary duty to them. The Fiduciary duty refers to a companys responsibility to the people who invest in it and if an employer puts the companys interest ahead of the investors, it has broken its fiduciary duty., so the investigation. ERISA, so the press release, is a federal law that sets minimum standards for pension and health plans set up by private businesses and ERISA was designed to protect people who participate in employee benefit plans, including employees with stock options in a company.

On Tuesday, March 10, 2009, an investor in Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) filed a proposed securities class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas on behalf of purchasers of Sprint Nextel Corporation common stock (NYSE: S) during the period between October 26, 2006 and February 27, 2008, against Sprint Nextel and certain of its officers and directors over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws.

According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that Sprint Nextel Corporation ('Sprint Nextel') and certain of its officers and directors violated the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by issuing between October 26, 2006 and February 27, 2008 materially false and misleading statements regarding the its business and financial results and as a result of defendants' false statements, Sprint Nextel stock (NYSE: S) traded at artificially inflated prices.

In December 2004, Sprint Corporation and Nextel Communications ('Nextel') announced that they would merge. The merger was completed on August 12, 2005, with Sprint Corporation buying Nextel for $37.8 billion. The merger, so the lawsuit, turned out to be a disaster, as Sprint Nextel Corporation has had difficulties in combining the resources of the two companies due to culture clashes and technological issues. But the defendants repeatedly assured between October 26, 2006 and February 27, 2008 that Sprint Nextel was poised for a turnaround and was focused on improving its core operations. As late as the summer of 2007, defendants continued to play down and conceal Sprint Nextel's problems with its network and with its customer service issues and subscriber base. Beginning in early Fall 2007, Sprint Nextel finally began to acknowledge that its initiatives were not working and that Sprint Nextel was experiencing a serious deterioration in its subscriber base, due both to a slow down in new growth and a massive defection of its current subscribers to its competitors.

On February 28, 2008, before the market opened, Sprint Nextel reported disappointing fourth quarter and full year 2007 financial results, including a net loss for the quarter of $29.5 billion or $10.36 diluted loss per share and on this news, Sprint's stock collapsed $0.86 per share to close at $8.09 per share, so the lawsuit.