United States: pinned Vivendi, Messier milled

He took his time. But the New York jury delivered its verdict on Friday evening the group of telecommunications and media company Vivendi sued by shareholders ruined by its near-collapse in 2002, was convicted of misleading communication. Its CEO at the time, Jean-Marie Messier, has instead been milled.

As expected, Vivendi's lawyer Paul Saunders immediately announced he would appeal, and that he intended to "win". "We are satisfied that the damage is half of what the plaintiffs claimed this side there is a partial victory," said the lawyer. The plaintiff had estimated that damages could rise to 11.5 billion dollars.

Messier absent when the verdict

Jean-Marie Messier and Guillaume Hannezo, its chief financial officer, were absent when the verdict.They have yet to appear in magistrate in Paris in the spring, with five other executives of Vivendi, including responding to charges of disseminating false or misleading information, price manipulation and abuse of social goods, which they could worth up to 5 years imprisonment and heavy fines for bad credit payday advance .

After three months of trial, the nine board members of the Federal Court had to decide on 57 points very technical. After answering a series of questions establishing the guilt of the accused or not, they have, for each trading day occurring between October 2000 and August 2002, "determine the amount of inflation being caused by the fraud alleged" .

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