Big Lots reaches settlement in insider-trading suit

Big Lots has agreed to pay $38 million to settle insidertrading claims that date to 2012.

Investors in the Columbus-based discount and closeout retailer alleged that some current and former executives misled shareholders in 2012 about the retailer’s performance, according to a settlement filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Columbus.

The deal signed on May 16 said the company continues to deny all claims in the suit, which alleged that more than a dozen insiders sold shares at a profit of approximately $37 million while knowing that bad news was coming.

The suit focused on events that began in March 2012 when Big Lots issued a press release highlighting “record results” for 2011’s fourth quarter and the full fiscal year and touting a positive outlook for the first quarter of 2012 and fiscal year 2012. The same day, CEO and Chairman Steve Fishman, who retired in 2013, held a conference call reinforcing the optimistic outlook.

Days later, several Big Lots executives and board members sold hundreds of thousands of shares of the retailer’s common stock “in a manner inconsistent with their normal trading patterns,” the suit said.

Then, on April 23, 2012, less than a month after the executives sold a significant amount of shares, Big Lots updated its financial