Nov 2 (Reuters) - Money manager AXA Rosenberg and
co-founder Barr Rosenberg agreed to pay $65 million to settle a
lawsuit by investors who said they lost money after a computer
coding glitch impeded the firm's ability to manage risk.
Tuesday's settlement came nine months after AXA Rosenberg,
a unit of French insurer AXA SA, agreed to pay $217 million to
cover client losses and a $25 million fine to settle related
Securities and Exchange Commission civil fraud charges.
Barr Rosenberg in September accepted a $2.5 million civil
fine and lifetime ban from the securities industry to settle
his own SEC case.
According to court papers, programmers introduced the
coding error in January 2007, exposing clients to excess risk
and causing losses that would not otherwise have occurred.
The error was found in June 2009 but not fixed for five
months, and then not revealed to clients until April 15, 2010,
after the SEC had begun examining the problem.
In a federal court filing in San Francisco, lawyers for
four pension funds leading the investor lawsuit said the $65
million settlement marks a "substantial recovery," above and
beyond the sum obtained by the SEC.
The settlement requires court approval. A hearing has been
scheduled for Feb. 17, 2012.
Neither AXA Rosenberg nor Barr Rosenberg admitted
wrongdoing in settling with the SEC.
AXA Rosenberg managed $29 billion of assets in June 2011,
down from about $70 billion at the end of 2009, in part
reflecting client withdrawals stemming from the coding error.
The case is In re: AXA Rosenberg Investor Litigation, U.S.
District Court, Northern District of California, No.
11-00536.
For plaintiffs: Various counsel including attorneys from
Bernstein Litwoitz Berger & Grossman, Lieff Cabraser Heimann &
Bernstein, and O'Donoghue & O'Donoghue.
For AXA: Lee Rubin and Rena Chng of Mayer Brown.
For Rosenberg: Jonathan Bass of Coblentz, Patch, Duffy &
Bass.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel)
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