The series of lawsuits filed this week follow another shareholder suit against Amazon.com earlier this month that alleged failure by the company to disclose losses being incurred by its Commerce Network Partners.
Purchasers of Amazon.com stock between 2nd February 2000 and 9th March 2001 are being invited to join one of three similar actions, each represented by a different US law firm, each seeking class action status.
The action being represented by Seattle-based firm Keller Rohrback L.L.P alleges that, during the 13 month period, Amazon.com and certain of its officers and directors – Jeff Bezos, Joseph Galli, Jr., and Warren Jenson - violated federal securities laws by disseminating to the investing public false and misleading financial statements in filings and press releases concerning the company's revenues, investments in joint ventures, earnings, cash flow as well as its overall financial condition and future prospects.
In particular, the lawsuit says that those sued touted the company's investments in the Amazon Commerce Network Partners and the purported high margin revenue stream created by such ventures. In fact, it alleges, the investments were losing millions of dollars, which was not disclosed to investors.
The lawsuit also claims that founder and CEO Jeff Bezos sold more than one million shares of his Amazon.com shares at artificially inflated prices, for proceeds of more than $30 million.