Barrack Rodos & Bacine Announces Jury Verdict for Apollo Group, Inc. Investor Class

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- In a unanimous verdict entered today in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, a jury found that Apollo Group, Inc., the company that owns the for-profit University of Phoenix, and two former Apollo executives, fraudulently misled investors about a U.S. Department of Education review report concerning Apollo's student recruitment policies, and awarded damages of $5.55 per share, which defendants had estimated would amount to $280 million in damages.

The prosecution of the case was led by the Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago (the "PABF"), and its counsel, Barrack Rodos & Bacine, which has its primary offices in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and San Diego, California. It was brought on behalf of purchasers of Apollo stock during the period from February 27, 2004 to September 14, 2004.

According to Stephen Basser, who served as the firm's primary trial counsel in the case: "This is a great victory for shareholder rights in America, and for the preservation of the integrity of our nation's financial markets. The PABF should be commended for stepping up and taking an active role as lead plaintiff to prosecute this important case, and seeing it through to a successful conclusion."

The case was started in the fall of 2004. The trial began in November 2007 and continued into the second week of January 2008. The jury started deliberations on Thursday, January 10, 2008, and issued its verdict today. The jury verdict is believed to be the largest in favor of an investor class since passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act in 1995.

Leonard Barrack, the senior partner of Barrack Rodos & Bacine, stated: "We will vigorously pursue these types of cases through verdict, to protect the interests of investors. We thank the jury for their close attention to the evidence in the case, and for keeping their eyes on the real story of what happened at this company."

John Gallagher, the Executive Director of the PABF, further commented: "On behalf of my Board of Trustees, our fund membership and our fellow class members, we are delighted to be serving as the lead plaintiff for this case and to have achieved this marvelous recovery for the class. The jurors should take comfort in the knowledge that their verdict will help all of us as investors to incrementally increase the accuracy, reliability and, in this case especially, the timeliness of reporting critical information to the market, so that individual or institutional investors can fairly evaluate the risks involved in investing in public companies. Disclosure is a major component of public market efficiency, and our class counsel made it quite clear to the jury that 'walking a stock down' before full disclosure is made to the public is a practice that flies in the face of the securities laws, and those who practice such tactics will be held responsible for doing so."

He continued: "I want to congratulate and thank Stephen Basser, Jeffrey Barrack, Sam Ward and the trial team from Barrack, Rodos & Bacine, and their esteemed Arizona-based counsel, Greg Fairbourn and Frank Balint and the team from Bonnett, Fairbourn, Friedman and Balint, on winning this victory for the class. I also want to thank our annuitants who appeared in court, as well as the jurors for their efforts in this case. I was present for the jury selection and know that for some jurors their service was quite taxing on their personal lives, especially with this trial progressing through the holiday season. But they can go home tonight knowing that they were fair, impartial and, most importantly to us, correct in rendering this verdict in favor of investors who were defrauded into purchasing Apollo stock at the prices they did."

Persons with questions concerning the verdict, or the case in general, may contact the attorneys for the Policemen's Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago -- Barrack, Rodos & Bacine, 3300 Two Commerce Square, 2001 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103, (215) 963-0600, www.barrack.com -- who are serving as lead counsel for the class.