While debate over the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout continues, class-action securities attorney Jeffrey Zwerling says shareholder lawsuits are almost certain to follow. Zwerling, of New York-based Zwerling, Schachter & Zwerling, LLP, says disgruntled shareholders who were misled by financial institutions will be filing litigation

"Because the executives at some of these financial institutions, investment banks and mortgage houses were treating their businesses as if they were their own personal casinos, the investors didn't receive the value they thought they paid for," he says. "All they received was an illusion."

Zwerling is already actively involved in litigation related to the collapse of the auction-rate securities sector earlier this year. He represents the lead plaintiff in a securities class-action against Citigroup in auctions it managed. After the market for auction rate securities shut down early this year, investors were left with no access to their money. Since then, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has forced Citigroup and other institutions to make good on the auction rate securities, but still unknown is whether pension funds and the individual workers they represent will receive any money.

Zwerling also represents the Wayne County Employees Association in a class-action against MGIC Investment Corporation, a provider of private mortgage insurance. The lawsuit claims that MGIC failed to warn investors of large financial losses it was experiencing as a result of the worsening credit crisis and problems in the home mortgage industry.

For more information or to speak with Jeffrey Zwerling about the financial crisis, call Mark Annick at 800-559-4534 (office) or mark@androvett.com.