Xerox

Representing the Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System as co-lead counsel, Berman Tabacco negotiated a $750 million settlement, approved in January 2009, that, at that time, ranked 10th among all securities class action settlements. The international fraud case against Xerox Corp., certain of its top officers and auditor KPMG LLP included allegations that the company: (i) improperly recognized revenue from its worldwide leasing operations by prematurely booking lease payments attributable to future supplies and services; (ii) boosted short-term results by overstating the value of future payments from leases originated in developing countries; and (iii) failed to write off mounting bad debts and improperly classified transactions in its Mexico operation. The judge praised plaintiffs’ counsel for obtaining “a very large settlement” despite vigorous opposition in a case complicated by an alleged fraud that “involved multiple accounting standards that touched on numerous aspects of a multinational corporation’s business, implicated operating units around the world, and spanned five annual reporting periods. … [and] the rudiments of the accounting principles at issue in the case were complex, as were numerous other aspects of the case. … The class received high-quality legal representation and obtained a very large settlement in the face of vigorous opposition by highly experienced and skilled defense counsel.”