Abraham, Fruchter & Twersky, LLP was appointed Lead Counsel by the Court to represent the Lead Plaintiffs and other purchasers of Alere Inc. stock between May 28, 2015 and December 7, 2016 in Godinez v. Alere Inc., et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-10766-PBS (D. Mass.). This case arises out of defendants’ violations of the federal securities laws by making materially false and misleading statements and omissions concerning Alere’s business, finances, and operations. These misrepresentations and omissions occurred at a time when the individual defendants were seeking to sell Alere and served to create an illusion that the Company was thriving and had adequate internal and financial controls.
This strategy was initially successful as Abbott Laboratories agreed to purchase Alere in January 2016. Just weeks after the merger agreement was finalized, however, Alere was forced to admit weaknesses in its internal controls. As the year progressed, Alere was forced to issue more bad news, including material restatements of its financial results, the recall of products important to its business, and a subsidiary’s loss of Medicare billing privileges due to the abusive billing practice of submitting billing for dead patients. Thereafter, Abbott commenced a lawsuit to terminate the merger with Alere, complaining that the issues discussed immediately above “can only be the result of a systematic failure of internal controls” and that Alere had “blocked every attempt” to obtain information about these issues. Abbott’s allegations confirm Lead Plaintiffs’ allegations concerning the falsity of the defendants’ statements and their attempts to hide the truth about Alere’s business, finances, and operations from investors.