U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin cleared the way for lawsuits brought by thousands of investors who allege they were victims of fraud in initial stock offerings during the peak years of the stock market boom. The shareholder suits consolidated in re: Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation, 21 MC 92, target more than 460 high technology and Internet-related companies that raised capital by selling ownership of their company to the public from January 1998 to December 2000.

In her 238-page ruling, Scheindlin said the plaintiffs presented “a coherent scheme by underwriters, issuers and their officers to defraud the investing public’ by not disclosing compensation and analyst conflicts to artificially boost the value of the IPO stock.

(via The Associated Press)