Gainey McKenna & Egleston Announces A Class Action Lawsuit Has Been Filed Against General Cable Corporation (BGC)

NEW YORK, Jan. 06, 2017 -- Gainey McKenna & Egleston announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against General Cable Corporation (“General Cable” or the “Company”) (NYSE:BGC) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of purchasers of common stock of General Cable between February 23, 2012 and February 10, 2016 (the “Class Period”), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants’ violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

According to the Complaint, the Company failed to disclose that: (i) General Cable paid millions of dollars in bribes to government officials in foreign countries, including Angola, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia, India, and Thailand, in order to secure business; (ii) the foregoing conduct was in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the “FCPA”); (iii) General Cable’s revenues were therefore in part the product of illegal conduct, and, as such, subject to disgorgement and unlikely to be sustainable; and (iv) the foregoing conduct, when it became known, would subject the Company to significant regulatory scrutiny and financial penalties.

On September 22, 2014, the Company disclosed that it was reviewing “payment practices,” “the use of agents,” and “the manner in which the payments were reflected on our books and records” in connection with the Company’s operations in Portugal, Angola, Thailand, and India.  On this news, shares of the Company’s stock fell $0.93 per share, or 4.7%, to close at $18.96 on September 22, 2014.  Subsequently, on February 10, 2016, the Company reported that it had increased a disgorgement accrual for a potential FCPA settlement to $33 million after identifying “certain other transactions that may raise concerns.”  On this news, shares of the Company’s stock fell an additional $3.05 per share, or 31.6%, to close at $6.60 on February 11, 2016.

Finally, on December 29, 2016, The Wall Street Journal reported that General Cable had entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and “agreed to pay $75.8 million to settle allegations it paid bribes across Africa and Asia and . . . agreed to an additional $6.5 million penalty to settle accounting-related violations.”  The article further reported that the Company’s subsidiaries, “over a period of a dozen years, paid about $13 million to third-party agents and distributors,” who in turn “paid bribes to government officials in Angola, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia and Thailand to get business in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.”

If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than March 6, 2017.  A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.  If you wish to join the litigation, or to discuss your rights or interests regarding this class action, please contact Thomas J. McKenna, Esq. or Gregory M. Egleston, Esq. of Gainey McKenna & Egleston at (212) 983-1300, or via e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected].

Please visit our website at http://www.gme-law.com for more information about the firm.