This landmark $3.2 billion settlement included the largest securities class action recovery from a single corporate defendant in history ($2.975 billion), and the second largest auditor settlement ($225 million) in securities class action history at the time.
The action asserted federal securities claims on behalf of all purchasers of Tyco International, Ltd. (Tyco) securities over a two-and-a-half-year period during which Tyco allegedly overstated its income through a multitude of accounting manipulations, and was subject to looting and self-dealing by its officers and directors. Developing critical areas of law, the litigation overcame defendants’ arguments that the class should recover nothing because Tyco had been defrauded by its own management.