Charming Shoppes Files Lawsuit

Bensalem, Pa. Charming Shoppes announced Friday that it has brought an action against the Crescendo Partners and Myca Partners hedge funds for allegedly violating federal securities laws.

In the federal lawsuit filed on March 7 in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Charming Shoppes, Inc. asserted that Crescendo Partners and Myca Partners have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission materially misleading and incomplete documents in violation of Section 13(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as part of their campaign to nominate three directors to Charming Shoppes’ board of directors.

“We filed this suit against Arnaud Ajdler, Eric Rosenfeld, Robert Frankfurt and the Crescendo Partners and Myca Partners hedge funds to ensure that our shareholders receive complete and accurate information about the group’s interests, plans and motivations that is required by the federal securities laws,” said Dorrit J. Bern, chairman, CEO and president of Charming Shoppes. “We will continue to take appropriate steps to protect the interests of Charming Shoppes’ shareholders.”

According to the Charming Shoppes complaint, the Crescendo Partners and Myca Partners hedge funds “have depicted themselves to the investing public as legitimate investors and ‘would-be’ directors, when in truth their intention is to achieve personal gain at the expense of Charming Shoppes and its shareholders. At no time have Defendants disclosed any part of their true track record of using proxy fights to disrupt corporations and to profit by forcing them to sell assets, buy back stock or buy off defendants and their cronies.”