Securities Fraud Lawyer - UnitedHealth Group, Inc. Stock Option Backdating Litigation

Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP filed a shareholder derivative action on behalf of UnitedHealth Group, Inc., a Minnesota-based health care company, against certain current and former directors and officers of the company.  The complaint was filed on March 29, 2006 in the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.  The Defendants in this case included William C. McGuire, former Chairman of the Board and CEO of United Health, and Stephen J. Hemsley, UnitedHealth's current President and CEO.

The operative complaint alleged that McGuire and Hemsley, along with the other defendants, knowingly backdated stock options grants for their personal enrichment at the expense of the company and its stockholders.  The complaint further alleged that many of the grant dates received by the defendants were not, as was required by the company’s stock option plan and reported in its SEC filings, priced on the same date of the grant, but were in fact chosen at a later date to secure low exercise prices and greater profit for the defendants.  The Court appointed Shapiro Haber & Urmy LLP Partner Michelle Blauner to serve on the Plaintiffs’ Coordinating Committee for the litigation.

On July 1, 2009, the Court approved a settlement valued at over $700 million – by far the largest derivative options settlement in any case in the country.