In this action, Berman Tabacco represented a class of Bluegreen shareholders in this action alleging that the Bluegreen board of directors was controlled by Bluegreen directors Alan Levan and John Abdo, and because of this, they agreed to sell Bluegreen to BFC Financial Corp. (“BFC”), a company controlled by Levan and Abdo for far less than what Bluegreen was worth. After a year of litigation, Bluegreen renegotiated with BFC and converted the transaction from an all-stock transaction to an all-cash deal – increasing the value to Bluegreen shareholders by $75 million.
Despite this improvement in the deal, however, it was still marred by conflicts of interest and other problems. The plaintiffs continued to pursue the litigation. On December 18, 2013, the class of Bluegreen shareholders was certified, and the parties proceeded towards trial. Finally, four years after the case was initiated, and after summary judgment was fully briefed, the plaintiffs agreed to settle their claims in exchange for a $36.5 million payment to the class.