Proshares Ultrashort Oil And Gas Fund (Symbol: DUG) Class Action Filed by Bernstein Liebhard LLP

Bernstein Liebhard LLP filed a class action lawsuit on September 30, 2009 in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, on behalf of all persons who purchased or otherwise acquired shares in the UltraShort Oil and Gas fund (the “DUG Fund”), an exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) offered by ProShares Trust (“ProShares”), pursuant or traceable to ProShares’ false and misleading Registration Statement, Prospectuses, and Statements of Additional Information (collectively, the “Registration Statement”) issued in connection with shares of the DUG Fund (the “Class”). The Class is seeking to pursue remedies under Sections 11 and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”).

The complaint names ProShares, ProShare Advisors LLC, SEI Investments Distribution Co., Michael L. Sapir, Louis M. Mayberg, Russell S. Reynolds, III, Michael Wachs, and Simon D. Collier, as defendants (collectively, “Defendants”). ProShares sells its Ultra and UltraShort ETFs as “simple” directional plays. As marketed by ProShares, Ultra ETFs are designed to go up when markets go up; UltraShort ETFs are designed to go up when markets go down. The DUG Fund is one of ProShares’ UltraShort ETFs. The DUG Fund seeks investment results that correspond to twice the inverse (-200%) daily performance of the Dow Jones U.S. Oil and Gas Index (“DJOGI”). Accordingly, the DUG Fund is supposed to deliver double the inverse return of the DJOGI, which fell approximately 37 percent from January 2, 2008 through December 31, 2008, ostensibly creating a profit for investors who anticipated a decline in the U.S. Oil and Gas market. In other words, the DUG Fund should have appreciated by over 74 percent during this period. However, the DUG Fund fell approximately 30 percent during this period.

The complaint alleges the Defendants violated the Securities Act by failing to disclose the following risks, inter alia, in the Registration Statement: (1) if DUG Fund shares were held for a time period longer than one day, the likelihood of catastrophic losses was huge; and (2) the extent to which performance of the DUG Fund would inevitably diverge from the performance of the DJOGI—i.e., the overwhelming probability, if not certainty, of spectacular divergence.

Bernstein Liebhard LLP also filed claims on behalf of shareholders in the SRS and SKF funds, and is investigating claims on behalf of investors in all other ProShares leveraged funds (the “Funds”) (see list below).

Plaintiff in the DUG Action seeks to recover damages on behalf of all Class members who purchased or otherwise acquired shares of ProSHares DUG.  If you purchased or otherwise acquired ProSHares DUG shares, and either lost money on the transaction or still hold the shares, you may wish to join in the action to serve as lead plaintiff.  In order to do so, you must meet certain requirements set forth in the applicable law and file the appropriate pages no later than November 23, 2009.

A “lead plaintiff” is a representative party that acts on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed lead plaintiff, the court must determine that the class member’s claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Under certain circumstances, one or more class members may together serve as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery is not, however, affected by the decision whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. You may retain Bernstein Liebhard LLP, or other counsel of your choice, to serve as your counsel in this action.

If you purchased or otherwise acquired shares in the DUG, SRS, or SKF Funds or any of the Funds, and either lost money on the transaction or still hold the shares, please contact Christian Siebott or Joseph R. Seidman, Jr. at (877) 779-1414.

The current lead plaintiff deadline are as follows.

SRS Fund-10/5/09BKF Fund-10/20/09EEV Fund-11/3/09DUG, UYG, SOS, FXP and SCO Funds 11/23/09

Bernstein Liebhard LLP has pursued hundreds of securities and consumer cases and recovered approximately $2 billion for its clients. It has been named to The National Law Journal’s “Plaintiffs’ Hot List” in each of the last six years.

You can view a copy of the DUG, SKF, or SRS complaints at the links below, or obtain them from the court.

DUG Fund Complaint

SKF Fund Complaint

SRS Fund Complaint