Robbins Geller Secures $96 Million Settlement in Historic Case Against PwC Arising from Audit of Valeant Pharmaceuticals

Robbins Geller recently secured a $96 million settlement with auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (“PwC”), pending court approval, in a securities fraud class action. The case alleged that Valeant’s securities were artificially inflated due to inflating sales through a secretly controlled distribution network, and PwC was alleged to have made materially misleading statements in its 2014 audit report that the company complied with GAAP.

Investors and the public first became aware of alleged misconduct by Valeant in 2015. Shortly after an SEC investigation began, Valeant restated the financial statements that had been audited by PwC. In 2021, Robbins Geller secured final approval of a settlement with all defendants except PwC and continued to litigate the case against PwC.

“If approved by the court, the settlement will bring the total recovery in this case to more than $1.3 billion. It says a lot when corporate defendants and their accountants with unlimited resources to hire the best defense firms in the country choose to pay $1.3 billion to investors rather than face us at trial,” partner James E. Barz told The New Jersey Law Journal.

The settlement with PwC brings the total recovery to over $1.3 billion, the ninth largest securities fraud settlement of all time, according to ISS Securities Class Action Services.

Robbins Geller attorneys Darren Robbins, James E. Barz, Frank A. Richter, Theodore J. Pintar, Christopher R. Kinnon, Robert J. Robbins, Kathleen B. Douglas, Stephen R. Astley, and Bailie L. Heikkinen represent lead plaintiff City of Tucson, together with and on behalf of the Tucson Supplemental Retirement System.

In re Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 3:15-cv-07658 (D.N.J.).