Litigation In Brief

St. Jude angers investors: Multiple class action suits filed against the firm charge that it misled investors about its implantable cardioverter defibrillator sales in the fourth quarter of 2005 to inflate its stock price. Law firm Roy Jacobs & Associates, for one, charges that St. Jude reported false information to "achieve extraordinary personal benefits for top insiders, such as CEO Daniel J. Starks, who sold an unusual number of shares in the open market in the early months of 2006." The lawsuits come after St. Jude reported first quarter earnings April 4 of $784 mil., far below its previously projected sales of $799 mil.-$839 mil. (1"The Gray Sheet" April 10, 2006, p. 7)...