Veolia Facing U.S. Lawsuit over Misleading Financial Statements

Paris-based Veolia Environnement is facing a class action lawsuit in the United States, with charges of making misleading financial statements.

At least two law firms have filed complaints against the company in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. New York-based Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP and Pomerantz Haudek Grossman & Gross LLP both filed on behalf of purchasers of Veolia American Depositary Shares between April 27, 2007, and August 4, 2011, the law firms said in news releases.

The suit alleges improper accounting practices; an inability to ascertain its true financial condition; failure to make a timely recording of a charge for businesses in Morocco, Egypt, the United States and southern Europe; that revenues were hampered by the renewal of some of its major concession contracts; and that, as a result of those actions, Veolia lacked a reasonable basis for positive statements about the company’s prospects.

Veolia Environnment said in a news release in response “that any allegation that its financial communications may have been misleading is without merit, and the company intends to seek the dismissal of the complaint.”

Veolia has put its U.S. solid waste operation up for sale as part of a massive restructuring plan to raise $6.7 billion for reducing debt.