This just caneto me in my monthly newsletter.

In a bit of bad news for execs at The Motor Company, several class action lawsuits have been filed against Harley-Davidson. Two of its officers are also alleging securities violations along with false and misleading accounting practices that caused inflation of Harley stocks. The lawsuits claim that former Harley CEO Jeff Bleustein, his successor James Ziemer and the company used false accounting practices both to hide slowing motorcycle sales and to pump up the price of Harley's red-hot stock. The lawsuits further claim that both Bleustein and Ziemer sold 740,000 shares of Harley common stock for approximately $45.9 million prior to announcing softening motorcycle sales in April. A sudden sell-off followed the announcement, leading to a 20% devaluation of Harley stock in two days on a volume of more than $50 million shares. At least five class action lawsuits have been filed since May 18 on behalf of investors who purchased stock between January 21, 2004 and April 14, 2005. Harley denied the accusations in a prepared statement, "The Company believes the allegations in the lawsuits are without merit, and it intends to vigorously defend against these actions." As of press time, the U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, where the suits were filed, had not ruled on whether a class action was proper in this situation - stay tuned.
We will keep you posted as more news filters in.

 

I don't know if the report is true or not, but nothing suprises me when it comes to share values. The market is corrupt, and there are really very few safeguards before fraud, Only when it's too late. I hope it's not true, since I think Bluestein is/was a real company man, and has done a great job in the past.

 

Well said Joe.

 

When you think of the number of retirees that have life savings in some of these companies...it's frightening. Some jerk-off lies and then these people are left destitute.

Mac

 

Serves them right! Slowing motorcycle sales, imagine that!?! Did they think that allowing their dealers to hork long time loyal customers for well overe list price, with crappy service and bad attitudes to boot, wouldn't eventually effect sales? The corporate culture at Harley became way too full of itself and the brand.

You wait, the day when dealers have excess inventory that isn't selling at even less than list price, with once loyal customers no longer interested in buying their products, is coming.

 

It's about time somebody sued HD instead of the other way around, good for them!

 

LOL.

 

I have been following this and I am no expert but here goes - I have seen and read the Class action suits and anything with this many lawyers involved is most likely a smoke screen for a dollar grab - I don't see how they are going to prove any wrong doing and with Enron and the passing of Sarbanes Oxley I doubt the powers that be would be so dumb to pull anything as blatant as they are accused of - The stock was bit over valued and took a huge correction when they announced slow sales for the quarter - My guess is that the bikes purchased in 05 and 06 will hold their value a long time due to the crazy proposed changes for 07. I think Harley is going to lobby the hell out of the government to leave them alone and they have some juice in D.C. cause there are not a lot of major American motorcycle brands are there??? Harley at 50 bucks a share is a great value cause the baby boomers have some bucks and will want to claim back some youth by buying, high gas prices are good for cycle sales and Harley's marketing push to woman is brilliant - Heather and Annie are trend-setters and I think you are going to see a lot more women buying bikes and think the stcok price is going to up for some time to come - just my 2 cents

 

I get a little tired of people trashing Harley corp. they may not be perfect, but they certainly do better than most of the corps out there. stockholders have been riding a steady increase for years and its not surprising that profit taking has started. Their a lot of lousey dealerships out there, Harley, Ford, Honda....ps isn't this america. if you don't like one thing you can choose another....jim

 

Well... I guess there are several out after The Motor Company...

This is a partial list from marketwatch.com:
3:58pm 06/06/05 Glancy Binkow & Goldberg LLP, Representing Investors Who Purchased Harley-Davidson, Inc., Announces Class Action Lawsuit and Seeks to Recover Losses -- HDI - PrimeZone

2:07pm 05/31/05 Pittsburgh Law Office of Alfred G. Yates Jr., PC Announces Class Action Suit against Harley-Davidson, Inc. - HDI - BusinessWire

3:10pm 05/28/05 Wisconsin Firm Ademi & O'Reilly, LLP Announces Securities Fraud Class Action Against Harley- Davidson, Inc. -- HDI - PrimeZone

5:30pm 05/27/05 Shareholder Class Action Filed Against Harley-Davidson, Inc. By The Law Firm Of Schiffrin & Barroway, LLP - PR Newswire

5:50pm 05/25/05 Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP Files Class Action Suit Against Harley-Davidson, Inc. - BusinessWire

2:46pm 05/25/05 Scott + Scott, LLC Files First Securities Fraud Class Action Against Harley-Davidson, Inc. on May 18, 2005 - PR Newswire

1:38pm 05/24/05 / CORRECTION - Harley-Davidson - Market Wire

1:47pm 05/21/05 Federman & Sherwood Announces that a Securities Class Action Lawsuit Was Filed Against Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE: HDI) - PR Newswire

6:41pm 05/20/05 Law Offices Of Charles J. Piven, P.A. Announces Class Action Lawsuit Against Harley-Davidson, Inc. - Market Wire

6:33pm 05/20/05 Harley-Davidson Reports Lawsuit Filings - PR Newswire

3:01pm 05/20/05 Schatz & Nobel, P.C. Announces Class Action Lawsuit Against Harley-Davidson, Inc. - PR Newswire

10:20am 05/20/05 Law Offices of Brodsky & Smith, LLC Announces Class Action Lawsuit against Harley-Davidson, Inc. -- HDI - PrimeZone

9:44pm 05/18/05 Scott + Scott, LLC Announces Securities Fraud Class Action Against Harley- Davidson, Inc. -- HDI - PrimeZone