Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP Files Class Action Suit against Aphria Inc.

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/aphria/) today announced that a class action has been commenced on behalf of purchasers of Aphria Inc. (NYSE:APHA) common stock during the period between November 2, 2018 and November 30, 2018 (the “Class Period”). This action was filed in the Southern District of New York and is captioned Curkan v. Aphria Inc., et al., No. 18-cv-11428.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 permits any investor who purchased Aphria common stock during the Class Period to seek appointment as lead plaintiff. A lead plaintiff acts on behalf of all other class members in directing the litigation. The lead plaintiff can select a law firm of its choice. An investor’s ability to share in any potential future recovery is not dependent upon serving as lead plaintiff. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from today. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff’s counsel, Samuel H. Rudman or David A. Rosenfeld of Robbins Geller at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at [email protected]. You can view a copy of the complaint as filed at http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/aphria/.

The complaint charges Aphria and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Aphria is a cannabis company based in Ontario, Canada.

The complaint alleges that Aphria and its senior executives issued materially false and/or misleading statements regarding the Company’s acquisition of cannabis-related assets in Latin America and the Caribbean (the “Acquisition”). As a result, Aphria common stock traded at artificially inflated prices during the Class Period.

Then, on December 3, 2018, analyst firms Hindenburg Research and Quintessential Capital Management issued a report and presentation that charged defendants with orchestrating a series of self-dealing transactions via the Acquisition in order to secretly funnel tens of millions of dollars’ worth of Aphria assets to Company insiders and their affiliates in exchange for assets that were worth a fraction of their purported value (if anything). The report and its accompanying presentation encompassed collectively over 100 pages and included extensive corroborating evidence for the findings of fact contained therein, including on-site visits and photographs of the acquired assets and associated properties in the various host countries, interviews with personnel associated with the assets acquired in the Acquisition, government records, proprietary analysis and fact-gathering, and a review of additional supporting source material.

On this news, the price of Aphria stock plummeted, dropping approximately 25% to close at $6.05 per share on December 3, 2018 on unusually large volume of over 35 million shares.

On December 3 and December 4, 2018, Aphria issued statements denying the findings contained in the Report. However, Aphria’s response failed to substantively address many of the issues of malfeasance and self-dealing that the Report had raised.

On this news, the price of Aphria stock again fell approximately 25% to close at $4.51 per share on December 4, 2018 on abnormally large volume of over 29 million shares. Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Aphria common stock during the Class Period (the “Class”). The plaintiff is represented by Robbins Geller, which has extensive experience in prosecuting investor class actions including actions involving financial fraud.

Robbins Geller is one of the world’s leading law firms representing investors in securities litigation. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller has obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history. For five consecutive years, ISS Securities Class Action Services has ranked the Firm in its annual SCAS Top 50 Report as one of the top law firms in both amount recovered for shareholders and total number of class action settlements. Robbins Geller attorneys have helped shape the securities laws and recovered tens of billions of dollars on behalf of aggrieved victims. Beyond securing financial recoveries for defrauded investors, Robbins Geller also specializes in implementing corporate governance reforms, helping to improve the financial markets for investors worldwide. Please visit http://www.rgrdlaw.com for more information.

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View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181206006052/en/

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP
Samuel H. Rudman, 800-449-4900
David A. Rosenfeld
[email protected]