NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (“Robbins Geller”) (http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/dryships/) today announced that a class action has been commenced on behalf of purchasers of DryShips Inc. (“DryShips”) (NASDAQ:DRYS) common stock during the period between June 8, 2016 and July 14, 2017 (the “Class Period”). This action was filed in the Eastern District of New York and is captioned Silverberg v. DryShips Inc. No. 17-cv-04547.
If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from July 14, 2017. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff’s counsel, Samuel H. Rudman, David A. Rosenfeld or David C. Walton of Robbins Geller at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at davew@rgrdlaw.com. If you are a member of this class, you can view a copy of the complaint as filed at http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/dryships/. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.
The complaint charges DryShips, certain of its officers and/or directors and Kalani Investments Limited (“Kalani”) and certain of its related entities with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. DryShips is a dry bulk shipping company that primarily owns and operates drybulk carriers and offshore support vessels.
The complaint alleges that during the Class Period, defendants made materially false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose adverse information regarding the Company’s business and operations, including that defendants had engaged in a series of manipulative share issuance/sales transactions with Kalani and related entities to artificially inflate DryShips’ share price, in which the Company’s CEO and Chairman, George Economou, caused DryShips to sell shares to Kalani at a discount and to file a registration statement so that Kalani could resell the shares into the market. When Kalani’s sales of DryShips stock caused the price of the stock to decline, DryShips would reverse split the stock, thereby raising the price of DryShips stock. Then, DryShips would again sell stock to Kalani and the same pattern of transactions would ensue.
On July 13, 2017, The Wall Street Journal published an article that described in detail how defendants’ scheme had wreaked “carnage” on the Company’s investors. The article also quoted legal experts who stated that Kalani appeared to be acting as an unregistered underwriter in violation of securities laws. Then on July 14, 2017, DryShips filed a report on Form 6-K disclosing that it had sold over 34 million shares to Kalani between April 3, 2017 and July 14, 2017 for over $151 million in gross proceeds. By the next trading day, July 17, 2017, as a result of defendants’ dilutive and manipulative conduct, the price of DryShips common stock had declined to close at $0.89 per share.
Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of DryShips common stock during the Class Period (the “Class”). The plaintiff is represented by Robbins Geller, which has extensive experience in prosecuting investor class actions including actions involving financial fraud.
Robbins Geller is widely recognized as a leading law firm advising and representing U.S. and international investors in securities litigation and portfolio monitoring. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller has obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history. For the third consecutive year, the Firm ranked first in both the total amount recovered for investors and the number of shareholder class action recoveries in ISS's SCAS Top 50 Report. Robbins Geller attorneys have shaped the law in the areas of securities litigation and shareholder rights and have recovered tens of billions of dollars on behalf of the Firm’s clients. Robbins Geller not only secures recoveries for defrauded investors, it also implements significant corporate governance reforms, helping to improve the financial markets for investors worldwide. Please visit http://www.rgrdlaw.com for more information.
