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Pluralsight Stockholder Lawsuit Gets New Life from Tenth Circuit

Bloomberg Law

August 25, 2022

  • Investors allege salesforce size inflated
  • Utah district court dismissed litigation in 2021

Pluralsight failed to convince the Tenth Circuit to affirm the complete dismissal of an investor lawsuit claiming executives made false claims about the size and productivity of the online education site’s salesforce.

The allegations brought by a couple of public employee retirement funds “strongly support the inference” that Pluralsight’s then-CFO knew he overstated the salesforce’s size at a 2019 conference and there was a risk of misleading investors, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit said in a unanimous decision Tuesday.

The allegations also support the inference the former CFO had a “financial motive for making the misleading representation,” the appeals court said

The investor funds—Indiana Public Retirement System and Public School Teachers’ Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago—sued Pluralsight in 2019 , alleging false or misleading statements about the company’s salesforce artificially inflated Pluralsight’s stock price, including during a 2019 secondary public offering.

They appealed to the Tenth Circuit after the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah dismissed the suit in March 2021.

. . .

Indiana Public Retirement System and Public School Teachers’ Pension and Retirement Fund of Chicago are represented by Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll and Clyde Snow & Sessions. Pluralsight is represented by Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Fabian VanCott.

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