Welcome to the Pilgrim Baxter
Mutual Fund Settlement Website
Starting on November 14, 2003, the first in a series of putative securities class action complaints was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging unlawful market-timing and late trading in the Pilgrim Baxter (PBHG) Funds and the communication of portfolio holdings information. Market-timing is a term used to describe the short-term, "in and out" trading of mutual fund shares, which may be used by a mutual fund trader to capitalize on inefficiencies in the way mutual fund shares are priced. Late trading is a form of market-timing that involves a mutual fund trader placing orders to buy, sell or exchange mutual fund shares using the prior day's price to capitalize on information obtained after the close of the market. On November 26, 2003, the first derivative action based on the same alleged market-timing and late trading practices was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. On February 20, 2004, the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation issued an order centralizing all of these actions in one multi-district docket in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland under the caption MDL-1586 - In re Mutual Funds Investment Litigation.
Plaintiffs have now reached Settlements that will resolve the claims asserted in the securities class and derivative actions pending in the Pilgrim Baxter Sub-Track of MDL - 1586. The Settlements provide for a total payment of $31,538,600 in cash plus interest, funded on behalf of five separate groups of defendants. You may have already received a copy of the Mailing Notice describing the Settlements that the Court ordered to be mailed to Settlement Class Members. The Long-Form Notice explains in more detail the important facts and terms of the Settlements.
As described in the Notices, the Settlement Class in the Pilgrim Baxter Sub-Track includes all persons and entities who held, purchased or otherwise acquired shares in any of the Pilgrim Baxter (PBHG) Funds during the period from July 30, 1999 to November 13, 2003, inclusive, except those persons and entities that are excluded. You may view a list of the Pilgrim Baxter (PBHG) Funds here.
NOTE: If you are a member of the Settlement Class and you do not have records that show your shareholding information during the Class Period, a procedure has been put in place to help you obtain this information to the extent possible. If you have questions about how you might be able to obtain the shareholding information required to submit a claim, please contact the Court-appointed claims administrator, The Garden City Group, Inc., toll free at (800) 949-1898, press #3, and then please follow the specific instructions on the phone system regarding this issue.
Please note that on October 25, 2010, the Court entered Orders approving the settlements and separate Orders granting attorneys' fees and litigation expenses. Therefore, claims that were asserted against the settling defendants and certain parties related to the settling defendants have been released. If you are interested in more information regarding the release of claims, please click on the "Releases" tab to the left.
Please also note that the deadline for submitting Proofs of Claim was December 8, 2010. Any Proof of Claim submitted after December 8, 2010 will be noted as a late claim, and if otherwise eligible, will be presented to the Court as such. If you wish to submit a Proof of Claim, it should be accompanied by a statement showing good cause for the late submission. It is in the discretion of the Court whether or not to accept any late claims.
