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On October 3, 2005, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut dismissed a federal securities class action brought against NYFIX, Inc. and six of its directors and officers.  The suit followed a March 2004 announcement by NYFIX that it would restate earnings for a four-year period following an SEC inquiry into the company's accounting for an investment in a start-up company, NYFIX Millennium LLC.  NYFIX, together with some of the largest financial institutions on Wall Street, formed NYFIX Millennium in 1999.  The plaintiffs alleged that NYFIX's public filings from 1999 through the first quarter of 2003 were false and misleading because they failed to disclose millions of dollars in Millennium losses, thereby artificially inflating NYFIX's earnings throughout the class period.  Plaintiffs alleged causes of action under both the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Securities Act of 1933.
 

Following oral arguments on September 27, Judge Janet Hall dismissed all claims in a 29-page opinion.  The court, applying the heightened pleading standards of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 to both the Exchange Act and the Securities Act claims, found that plaintiffs failed to plead facts that would create a strong inference of intent to commit fraud.
 

The Simpson Thacher team includes Mike Chepiga, David Massengill, Mike Kibler, Sandra Chiocchi and paralegal Kate Rose.