A US law firm has taken legal action against Lazard and Goldman Sachs accusing the banks of improprieties relating to Lazard's $855m (€702m) flotation last month. Lazard chief executive Bruce Wasserstein is named as a defendant. A second law firm is preparing an additional suit.
Law firm Lerach Coughlin alleges that the two banks and certain Lazard officers and directors "violated the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by issuing a materially false and misleading Registration and Prospectus in connection with the Company's IPOâ¦and continuing to conceal material facts about the true value of the Company's stock price after the stock began to trade on the open market."
