2009-10-27 17:33:04 -

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro announced today it is investigating Pulte Homes (NYSE: PHM) in Arizona and Nevada based on reports that claim the company may be engaged in a fraudulent scheme to artificially inflate home sale prices and drive sales by controlling the home sale process.

The firm filed a lawsuit against Pulte Homes in California last week, citing similar claims and believes the practice is widespread throughout Pulte neighborhoods in Arizona and Nevada.

The lawsuit in California claims Pulte placed unqualified homeowners in loans that they could not afford in an effort to sell more homes and at higher prices. Since Pulte controls the entire home buying process, its settlement and appraisal arms can take whatever steps necessary to close a

sale at prices demanded by Pulte.

“We believe Pulte Homes spent a lot of time and effort to develop a sophisticated scheme in California, and decided they didn’t want to stop there,” said Rob Carey, a partner in the HBSS Phoenix office. “We believe that Pulte targeted homeowners in states with high foreclosure rates, including Arizona and Nevada, and we’re interested in learning more about the company’s sales process in these states on behalf of homeowners.”


HBSS is interested in hearing from anyone who purchased a home from Pulte in the past several years in Arizona or Nevada. Homeowners can contact the firm at pulte@hbsslaw.com : mailto:pulte@hbsslaw.com , visit the Web site at www.hbsslaw.com/pulte : or call (206) 623-7292.

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro will treat all information as confidential.



About Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro is a nationally recognized class-action and complex-litigation law firm based in Seattle with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and Phoenix. Among recent successes, HBSS negotiated a $300 million settlement in the DRAM memory antitrust litigation, the largest antitrust settlement in U.S. history, recovered $340 million on behalf of Enron employees, and was part of the leadership team in the $3 billion Visa/MasterCard settlement. In pharmaceutical litigation, the firm’s recent successes include a $350 million settlement with McKesson, more than $200 million with other parties in drug-pricing litigation, and a $150 million settlement regarding Lupron. HBSS represented Washington and 12 other states against the tobacco industry that resulted in the largest settlement in history. For a complete listing of HBSS cases, visit www.hbsslaw.com : .



Hagens Berman Sobol ShapiroRob Carey, 602-840-5900 Rob@hbsslaw.com : mailto:Rob@hbsslaw.com orFirmani
+ Associates, Inc.Mark Firmani, 206-443-9357 Mark@firmani.com : mailto:Mark@firmani.com