Kobe Steel, Ltd. - Securities Investigation

Kobe Steel, Ltd. – Securities Investigation

Kobe Steel, Ltd. – Securities Investigation On Behalf of KBSTY Investors

Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is investigating potential claims on behalf of investors of Kobe Steel, Ltd. (KBSTY) involving Kobe Steel’s admission that employees had engaged in “improper conduct” that included falsifying records.

On October 8, 2017, Kobe Steel, Ltd. issued a press release titled “Improper conduct concerning a portion of the aluminum and copper products manufactured by Kobe Steel”, revealing that employees at four of its factories had altered inspection certificates on aluminum and copper products between September 2016 and August this year, making it appear as though the products met manufacturing specifications required by customers, such as tensile strength, when the products did not.

The press release is available at:  http://www.kobelco.co.jp/english/releases/1197808_15581.html

According to Kobe Steel, “[t]his incident of improper conduct came to light following self-inspections and emergency quality audits of the compliance status of contracts executed as to products shipped over the past year.”

Kobe Steel also reported that the serious of the matter “has brought overwhelming shame to the Company.”   Kobe Steel added that it was examining other possible episodes of data falsification going back 10 years.

As reported by The New York Times, all of Japan’s major carmakers — Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota — are looking into their use of Kobe Steel materials, and Toyota reportedly characterized the data falsification a “grave issue.”  Ford and General Motors are reportedly investigating whether they have used Kobe Steel products in their vehicles.

The New York Times article is available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/10/business/kobe-steel-japan.html

Following the Kobe Steel’s press release, the stock price dropped nearly 8% on October 9, 2017, and plunged nearly another 25% on October 10, causing investors hundreds of millions in losses.

Kobe Steel Losses?

If you purchased Kobe Steel shares and would like to speak privately with a securities attorney to contribute to or learn more about the investigation,  please complete the form to the right or contact John Kehoe, Esq., (215) 792-6676, Ext. 801, [email protected] or send an e-mail to [email protected].

Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. is a multidisciplinary, plaintiff–side law firm dedicated to protecting investors and consumers from corporate fraud, negligence, and other wrongdoing. Driven by a strong and principled sense of social responsibility and obtaining justice for the aggrieved, Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. represents plaintiffs seeking to recover investment losses resulting from securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, corporate wrongdoing or malfeasance, those harmed by anticompetitive practices, and consumers victimized by fraud, false claims, deception or data breaches.  Together, the partners of the Kehoe Law Firm, P.C. have spent more than 30 years prosecuting precedent-setting securities and financial fraud cases in federal and state courts on behalf of institutional and individual clients.