Kalkhoven wins court case

UPDATE After an unusually short deliberation, the jury in the matter of JDS Uniphase Securities Litigation today has found in favor of Kevin Kalkhoven and all other defendants.

Jerry Forsythe and his Champ Car Series partner Kevin Kalkhoven

Today’s verdict completely exonerates four senior officers of JDS Uniphase, including Kalkhoven, who is a co-owner of the Champ Car World Series, PKV Racing, Cosworth Engineering, the Long Beach Grand Prix and the Toronto Grand Prix, of any wrong doing in the class action civil lawsuit for monetary damages. The suit, which was filed in March of 2002, went to trial on October 23, 2007 in U.S. District Court in Oakland. Proceedings lasted just over four weeks. Shareholder class-action suits are usually settled out of court, however, Kalkhoven and the other three officers chose to defend against the action, which they, correctly, believed had no merit.

"After five years of examining every email and employee at JDS Uniphase, plaintiffs could not lay a glove on Kevin Kalkhoven," said Kalkhoven’s attorney Michael Shepard, who works for the firm Heller Ehrman in San Francisco. “As I predicted in my opening statement, all the plaintiffs could prove was that Mr. Kalkhoven is rich. We thank the jury for fairly reviewing the facts and appreciating the complete lack of evidence in the case. The trial proved that JDS Uniphase did great while Mr. Kalkhoven was in charge and for a long time after. Today’s verdict completing vindicates Mr. Kalkhoven and proves that he always acted honestly and in good faith."

JDS Uniphase, a fiber optics parts provider, was created by the June 1999 merger between JDS Fitel, a Canadian telecommunications equipment maker, and Silicon Valley-based Uniphase. It quickly became a favorite on Wall Street and expanded through a string of purchases before business began slowing in calendar 2001 when business spending on telecommunications products stalled. Kalkhoven, who was a part of the company for just three and a half weeks during the period of time the alleged conduct that formed the basis of suit occurred, stepped down as CEO in May 2000 when JDSU was still growing.

11/27/07 AutoRacing1.com has learned that the court has dismissed all charges against Champ Car owner Kevin Kalkhoven and all the other defendants in the JDS Uniphase class action lawsuit. In addition the plaintiffs have to pay all legal costs and court fees. More to follow….