A month ago we asked the Investors Committee if they were prepared to sue the SEC if investors so decided.
We have still not received a written reply but received a verbal response that they were "continuing to review the situation."
Meanwhile the clock is ticking on the statute of limitations, and unless a claim is made against the SEC before February 16th 2011, we will all be barred from claiming against them. Forever.
Since then, WendyAnne, WCCI, Patron1, Jaime, and I, have been searching for a new lawyer to sue the SEC on our behalf.
On November 11th 2010, Dr Gaytri Kachroo, of Kachroo Legal Services, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, filed a class-action against the SEC on behalf of the Madoff victims.
Of the three class-actions against the SEC on behalf of the Madoff victims, we believe this has the best chance of succeeding (one of these actions has been brought in Luxembourg by an investment fund and is of no relevance to us).
Over the last few weeks we have had lengthy discussions with Dr. Kachroo, and have held several conference calls in order to determine the process forward.
On behalf of all the other investors who have put in a great deal of effort in such a short space of time I am very pleased to announce that Dr Kachroo has agreed to sue the SEC on behalf of the Stanford victims.
The suit is for the benefit of all the victims who sign-up, whether domestic (US) or International, and we shall all have equal status.
Copies of Kachroo Legal Services letter of engagement together with a brief statement will follow, together with questions and answers from our last conference call.
Jaime has also made submissions which no doubt he will also be posting.
Before reading through all the documentation, I would like to highlight a few very important points:
1. As this is an action against the US Government, it can not be a class-action in the normal sense. Only the investors who have joined-in and claimed under the suit will be included. No other victims will be able to join-in later.
2. After the statute of limitations expires (which we believe will be on February 16th 2011), unless investors have already registered and their claims have been submitted, they will be barred from suing the US Government and the SEC.
3. Kachroo Legal Services have to prepare a separate claim for each investor who decides to join the class, in advance of filing of the class-action. This will obviously take some time, and clearly time is of the essence. We should each decide whether to sign-up sooner rather than later.
4. The fees are explained in KLS letter of engagement, but in brief; there is a registration fee, on a sliding scale from $500 to $1500 per investor, commensurate with the level of investment, with no limit to the number of accounts per investor. This registration fee is to finance the cost of the class-action. There will also be a contingency fee of 15%, plus reasonable expenses, due from the recovery, if the class-action is successful.
I do not want to mislead anybody. This will be a tough case. There will be a motion to dismiss by the US Government, on the grounds of sovereign immunity, that will first have to be overcome before we can even start to tackle the SEC.
I have had several discussions now with Dr Kachroo and I have found her very moral and righteous, someone who I believe will fight for all the victims.
Dr Kachroo believes the Stanford victims have a better chance of winning against the SEC than the Madoff victims, and so do I.
Personally I would hate to be left out if this case is successful, but you must each make your own decisions whether to participate in this action or not.
This is the website of Kachroo Legal Services:
http://www.kachroolegal.com/
If I can be of any further assistance to any investors please post your concerns, or send either WendyAnne or myself a PM (In this case, PM means Private-Message). We will try to answer all questions to the best we can. Time is of the essence.
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