Canadian pharmaceutical Biovail has lashed out at a number of hedge funds over what it claims is a conspiracy with research firms to drive down its stock prices, but if history repeats itself, three of the 22 defendants could eventually get off the hook. The New York Post reports that Pinnacle Investment Advisors, Helios Equity Fund and Hallmark Funds were similarly charged as co-conspirators by Overstock.com in 2004. Back then, the Securities and Exchange Commission looked into the matter and discovered nothing untoward, as none of the funds were found to have traded any stock or option of Overstock, or any other companies the SEC was looking into. Whether the firms will have a happy result this time remains to be seen.
Meanwhile, according to Hedge Fund.net, Biovail has hired private investigators to sift through trash of stock analyst Jerry Treppel of Banc of America Securities in search of supporting material for its charge that hedge funds engaged in a conspiracy to drive down its stock price. Treppel is now suing to retrieve anything Biovail’s investigators may have found.