Labaton Sucharow LLP is the Court-appointed Class Counsel for Class Representative Middlesex County Retirement System in the certified class action In re Monster Worldwide, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 07-CV-02237 (S.D.N.Y.). Defendants are Monster Worldwide, Inc. (“Monster” or the “Company”), the Company's founder and former Chief Executive Officer, Andrew McKelvey, and its former General Counsel, Myron Olesnyckyj.

On October 3, 2008, the Honorable Jed Rakoff of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York preliminarily approved the $47.5 million Settlement proposed by the parties and ordered that notice be issued to potential class members. The Settlement is still subject to final approval by the Court and a Settlement Hearing will be held on November 21, 2008 at 5:00 pm. If you purchased or acquired Monster’s common stock or options between May 6, 2005 and June 9, 2006, you may be able to recover if you submit a Proof of Claim form, with supporting documents, by January 5, 2009. A copy of the Notice of Pendency of Class Action and Proposed Settlement and Proof of Claim form can be accessed by clicking on the links to the left.

The Class alleges that Defendants engaged in a long-running scheme to backdate Monster’s stock option grants to attract and retain employees without recording the resulting compensation expenses. This scheme violated Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Monster’s own stated accounting policies and rendered its publicly filed financial statements and periodic reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) materially false and misleading. On December 13, 2006, Monster admitted, through a $339.6 million pre-tax restatement (“Restatement”) covering its financial results from 1997 to 2005, that the Company’s internal investigation into Monster’s stock option practices revealed “intentional” misconduct by persons formerly in positions of authority. Mr. Olesnyckyj has since pled guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud based on the backdating that occurred at Monster. He is awaiting sentence. Mr. McKelvey has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the government.