A group of 150 apartment buyers and creditors of Heftsiba Building Development & Investments Ltd. plan to sue the Israel Securities Authority, its chairman Moshe Tery, and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) for negligence. The group has asked the law firm Yaniv & Co. to represent them against Heftsiba, the company’s creditor banks, its subcontractors, and other parties.
The group says that the Securities Authority and the TASE bear tort liability for not noticing that “the writing was on the wall” before Heftsiba Building collapsed. The creditors that they have information, which allegedly indicates that the Securities Authority and the TASE failed in their supervisory and monitoring responsibilities, even though they had this information in time. The group is declining to disclose this information at this time.
Adv. Eldad Yaniv and Adv. Sharon Stein say that the Securities Authority and the TASE have the authority to demand information from publicly traded companies, and should not merely file this information. The attorneys say that the two agencies failed to use their authority and conducted no investigations.
Meanwhile, the Securities Authority is examining whether any aspects of Heftsiba’s collapse falls within its authority. The Securities Authority has asked Hefstiba Diur and Holdings Ltd. subsidiary Heftsiba Hofim Ltd. (TASE:HFZB.B1) to make an immediate notification to the TASE on developments at the company. Two other Heftsiba Diur subsidiaries, Heftsiba Global Ltd. (TASE:HFGL), Heftsiba Jerusalem Ltd. (TASE:HFZJ), say that the collapse of their parent company has no effect on them.
The Securities Authority is examining whether the parties concerned had any control over the events, whether their actions amount to negligence or inattention, or alternatively, bribery was involved. If the latter is the case, the matter is outside the Securities Authority’s authority.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on August 6, 2007
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