On May 1, 2020, Berman Tabacco was appointed interim Lead Counsel representing sole Lead Plaintiff Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System in Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System v. Sterling Bancorp, Inc., et al., No. 2:20-cv-10490 (E.D. Mich.). The case is a securities fraud class action lawsuit against Sterling Bancorp, Inc. (“Sterling” or the “Company”), certain of its current and former officers and directors, and the underwriters for the Company’s initial public offering (“IPO”), brought on behalf of investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Sterling common stock from November 17, 2017 through and including December 8, 2019 (the “Class Period”), and investors who purchased or otherwise acquired Sterling common stock in or traceable to the Company’s IPO.
Sterling, headquartered in Southfield, Michigan, is the unitary thrift holding company of Sterling Bank and Trust. The Company specializes in residential mortgages but offers a broad suite of products to the residential and commercial markets as well as retail banking services. Throughout the Class Period, the Company’s largest lending product was its Advantage Loan Program, constituting the majority of the Company’s loans. On December 9, 2019, the Company disclosed that it “voluntarily and temporarily suspended its Advantage Loan Program in connection with an ongoing internal review of the program’s documentation.” On that same day, shares of Sterling common stock fell $2.16 per share to close at $7.29 per share, a decline of nearly 23%.
The complaint filed in this class action alleges that, throughout the Class Period, defendants made untrue statements of material fact and omitted other facts necessary to make the statements not misleading and further failed to disclose material facts concerning, inter alia, the Company’s loan underwriting, risk management, and internal controls, including repeatedly touting its strict underwriting, asset quality, and the Advantage Loan Program.
The litigation team includes Kristin J. Moody and Carl N. Hammarskjold from Berman Tabacco’s San Francisco office and Patrick T. Egan and Nicole Maruzzi from the firm’s Boston office.