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

TOPS | August 23, 2017

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

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP (“Robbins Geller”) (http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/topships/) today announced that a class action has been commenced on behalf of purchasers of Top Ships Inc. (“Top Ships”) (NASDAQ:TOPS) common stock during the period between January 17, 2017 and August 22, 2017 (the “Class Period”). This action was filed in the Eastern District of New York and is captioned Brady v. Top Ships Inc., et al, No. 17-cv-4987.

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, David C. Walton of Robbins Geller, at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at davew@rgrdlaw.com. If you are a member of this class, you can view a copy of the complaint as filed at http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/topships/. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.

The complaint charges Top Ships, certain of its officers and/or directors and Kalani Investments Limited and certain of its related entities (“Kalani”) with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Top Ships is an international owner and operator of tanker vessels focusing on the transportation of crude oil, petroleum products and bulk liquid chemicals.

The complaint alleges that through his control of Top Ships, the Company’s CEO, Evangelos J. Pistiolis (“Pistiolis”), caused Top Ships to engage in a series of manipulative share issuance/sales transactions with Kalani through which Top Ships would sell its common shares and securities convertible into common shares to Kalani at a significant discount to market price and file registration statements so that Kalani could resell these shares into the market. When Kalani’s sales of Top Ships stock caused the price of Top Ships stock to decline, the Company would reverse split the stock, causing a certain number of outstanding shares to be merged into a single share, and thereby raise the price of Top Ships stock. Then, Top Ships would again sell securities to Kalani and the same pattern of transactions would ensue. At the same time that Top Ships was engaging in these transactions, defendants failed to disclose the true purpose of the transactions and related stock issuances and reverses – to finance related-party transactions and acquisitions that primarily benefited Pistiolis and his related companies, and otherwise funnel money to Company insiders.

By August 2017, Top Ships, through Kalani, had issued and sold into the market tens of millions of shares of its common stock, vastly diluting the Company’s existing shareholders. While Top Ships has used the proceeds from these offerings to further enrich Pistiolis and his affiliates through various related-party transactions, the value of Top Ships common stock has plummeted by more than 99%.

Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Top Ships 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 widely recognized as a leading law firm advising and representing U.S. and international investors in securities litigation and portfolio monitoring. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller has obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history. For the third consecutive year, the Firm ranked first in both the total amount recovered for investors and the number of shareholder class action recoveries in ISS's SCAS Top 50 Report. Robbins Geller attorneys have shaped the law in the areas of securities litigation and shareholder rights and have recovered tens of billions of dollars on behalf of the Firm’s clients. Robbins Geller not only secures recoveries for defrauded investors, it also implements significant 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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