Walnut firm hit with lawsuits
Walnut firm hit with lawsuits
Dec 02, 2011 (The Modesto Bee - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Diamond Foods Inc. faces complaints from stockholders about how it accounted for payments to walnut growers in the Central Valley.
Lawsuits filed last month claim that Diamond delayed some of the payments past the July 31 end of its fiscal year to make its finances look better than they were.
The defendants in two of the lawsuits name the Diamond board of directors, which included Joseph Silveira of Turlock until his death Nov. 15 at age 64. The Stanislaus County coroner's office reported that he committed suicide.
Diamond said in a written statement there was no link between Silveira's death and the accounting issue, and to suggest otherwise "is demeaning to his legacy."
The complaints appear to have contributed to a large drop in the company's stock price. It traded as high as $96.13 per share on the NASDAQ exchange over the past year. Thursday, it closed at $29.50.