ExxonMobil Derivative LawsuitBased on SEC whistleblower complaint. Exxon stock dropped some 5.0% only, whereas Reco dropped more than 50.0% over the class period.
"...On January 28, 2021, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas against Exxon Mobil and certain of its officers. The complaint purports to be filed on behalf of investors who purchased Exxon Mobil securities between November 6, 2019 and January 14, 2021. The plaintiff alleges that the defendants violated Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The complaint refers briefly to the company’s various filings with the SEC during the class period. However, the centerpiece of the complaint is the January 15, 2021 Wall Street Journalarticle entitled “Exxon Draws SEC Prove Over Permian Basin Asset Valuation”. The article reported that the SEC had launched an investigation of the company “after an employee filed a whistleblower complaint last fall alleging that the energy giant overvalued one of its most important oil and gas properties.”
The article goes on to report that “several people involved in valuing a key asset in the Permian Basin, currently the highest-producing oil field, complained during an internal assessment in 2019 that employees were being forced to use unrealistic assumptions about how quickly the company could drill wells there to arrive at a higher value, according to a copy of the complaint, which was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal.”