Enron – 8 Years Later, Still In Court

I've written before on my fascination with the Enron case. This year has seen a flurry of legal activity, including multiple appeals to the Supreme Court.

Shareholders are still battling in court to recoup their losses. Some were handed a major blow today as a federal judge dismissed their claims against the banks that allegedly aided Enron in perpetrating its fraud.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Exactly eight years after Enron Corp filed for bankruptcy protection, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by investors against banks they accused of helping the energy company commit fraud.

Wednesday's dismissal by U.S. District Judge Melinda Harmon in Houston federal court came after Enron investors had already obtained $7.2 billion of settlements, a record for U.S. class-action litigation according to Cornerstone Research.

Lawyers for the lead plaintiff, the Regents of the University of California, concluded there was no chance to obtain meaningful further recovery in light of court rulings.

"The potential costs would have been tens of millions of dollars to the class to pursue a case that, legally, had ended," said Patrick Coughlin, a partner at Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP in San Diego who represents the regents, in an interview. "There was no point in continuing."

See the full story here.