The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously affirmed the dismissal of a putative federal securities class action against Danske Bank and certain of its former executives. Three pension funds had alleged that Danske Bank materially misled holders of its ADRs between 2014 and 2019 by failing to disclose alleged violations of anti-money laundering laws, policies and procedures at its Estonian branch.
In its August 25 ruling, the Second Circuit found that none of the defendants’ alleged misstatements are actionable, and that the defendants did not have a duty to disclose uncharged, unadjudicated wrongdoing. Some of the alleged misstatements were made too long before the plaintiffs’ first purchase of ADRs and another statement was made too long after those purchases, the court found.
In September 2020, Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York dismissed with prejudice all the plaintiffs’ claims.
The S&C team that represented Danske Bank and a former chief financial officer at the Second Circuit and the district court was led by Brian Frawley and Kassie Bagley.