NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., April 10 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- SBI-USA LLC announced today that a civil lawsuit against its CEO Mr. Shelly Singhal and SBI-USA LLC is over after a federal court in Southern California granted summary judgment for SBI-USA on the entire case and dismissed with prejudice the whole case against Mr. Singhal. "This case ended with a clean sweep across the board for Mr. Singhal and his company, SBI-USA, thus providing a fitting and just end to a long and distracting process that had an unfair impact on Mr. Singhal's business activities and the companies with which he was associated when the case was filed in 2007," stated SBI-USA's counsel in the case, Pamela Johnston from Foley & Lardner LLP. The Court announced its decision to grant summary judgment for SBI-USA on March 14, 2008 during a hearing on the motion; the Court had previously dismissed with prejudice the individual case against Mr. Singhal.
Media coverage associated with the initial allegations in the case had a particularly negative impact on Xinhua Finance Media Ltd ("XFMedia";
Nasdaq: XFML), which went public on Nasdaq in March 2007 with Mr. Singhal as the CFO of the company. Certain financial media published inaccurate and misleading reports undermining the credibility of Mr. Singhal and of XFMedia by questioning the decision not to include this case in the XFMedia prospectus on the grounds that it was a nuisance lawsuit.
"I feel validated by this decision," said Mr. Singhal. "We said all along that this case was without merit, and it is wonderful to be vindicated. The decision by the lawyers and bankers at the time not to include this frivolous case in the XFMedia prospectus was absolutely correct. The misleading accusations in the media were just that -- misleading."
It is a shame how easy it is for people to file such nuisance lawsuits in the United States," Mr. Singhal added. "Everyone is entitled to a day in court, but periodically that right is abused by people for financial or other gain."
In order to spare the company the distraction and negative impact from the SBI-USA lawsuit at the time of the negative media attention, Mr. Singhal resigned his positions at XFMedia and Xinhua Finance Limited (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 9399) while nevertheless holding to his view that the case was frivolous.
Another part of the media blitz against XFMedia at that time involved a similar nuisance class action lawsuit against Stonepath Group Ltd, which was originally dismissed in April of 2006, with prejudice, and that dismissal was affirmed by the Federal Court of Appeals in July of last year according to Buchanan Ingersol, who defended Stonepath in the litigation.
"While I feel we have all been vindicated, it is an incredible shame that the media is not held to a standard of balance and accuracy, or even simple fact checking. It is also unlikely they will give this court decision as much attention as they gave the negative, inaccurate reports, but I would love to be proved wrong by the media," said Mr. Singhal.
About SBI-USA
SBI USA is an investment company with operations in Newport Beach, California and Hong Kong SAR.
For more information:
Michael Friedl
Tel: +1-949-679-8338
Email: Michael.Friedl@sbi-usa.com
