On behalf of News Corp., its subsidiary NI Group, and Rupert and James Murdoch, Skadden won the dismissal of a securities fraud class action arising out of news-gathering practices at News of the World and The Sun. The plaintiffs claimed that the defendants, which also included Les Hinton and Rebekah Brooks, deliberately concealed these practices through false statements that they failed to correct, and that News Corp.’s stock price dropped when the extent of the practices was revealed.
On March 31, Judge Paul G. Gardephe of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the complaint on the ground that most of the alleged false statements were made prior to the class period.