Gauthier v. Baazov

On August 7, 2020, the Superior Court of Québec (the “Court”) authorized the bringing of a class action on behalf of all persons and entities who purchased Amaya securities between February 1, 2016 and November 21, 2016 inclusively (the “Class Period”), and held all or some of those securities until after the Corrective Disclosure on November 22, 2016 (the “Class Action”).

Excluded from the Class are the Defendant and members of the Defendant’s immediate family.

The Plaintiff in the Class Action alleged that the Defendant would have made statements in public documents containing misrepresentations relating to a potential going-private transaction involving Amaya. In particular, the Plaintiff alleged that the Defendant’s Early Warning Reports dated February 1, 2016, and November 14, 2016, would have contained misrepresentations (the “Impugned Documents”).

The Defendant has denied and continue to deny all of the claims and allegations of wrongdoing made by the Plaintiff in the Class Action.

The parties have reached a settlement of the Class Action, without any admission of liability on the part of the Defendant and to avoid the further expense, inconvenience, and distraction of burdensome litigation, subject to approval by the Court. The terms of the proposed settlement are set out below.

On October 30, 2023, the Honourable Justice Sylvain Lussier of the Superior Court approved the Settlement without any admission of liability on the part of the Defendant.

The Settlement provides, among other things, for payment by the Defendant of an amount of CDN $1.8 million (“Settlement Amount”), to fully, definitively, and permanently resolve, settle, release and discharge all claims asserted, or which could have been asserted against him in the Class Action.

Legal fees have been approved in the amount of thirty (30) percent of the Settlement Amount, plus disbursements, plus taxes (“Net Settlement Amount”).

The Settlement Amount, less the lawyers’ fees and disbursements, administrator’s expenses, and taxes, will be distributed to the Class in accordance with the Court-approved plan of allocation.

The Plan of Allocation provides for an asymmetrical allocation of the settlement proceeds to Class members. The allocation is consistent with Class Counsel’s view regarding the relative legal merits of the two Impugned Documents, based on an assessment of the available evidence. The Class comprised of the securities purchased between February 1, 2016, until November 13, 2016 (“Class I”), is substantially weaker than the class comprised of the securities purchased on and after November 14, 2016 (“Class II”). As a result, the Net Settlement Amount will be allocated, subject to Court approval, 15% to Class I and 85% to Class II.

The Settlement agreement and the Plan of Allocation may be viewed at https://www.faguyco.com/class-actions/baazov and https://bergermontague.ca/cases/david-baazov/.

For assistance, you may contact the Claims Administrator or for questions for the Class Members’ lawyers may be directed to: