Herbalife Ltd. again won dismissal of an investor lawsuit accusing the dietary supplement company of lying about the legitimacy of its business operations.
The lawsuit led by the $2.3 billion Oklahoma Firefighters Pension & Retirement System, Oklahoma City, was thrown out Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer in Los Angeles. An earlier version of the complaint was rejected by the same judge in March.
The pension fund and at least two other shareholders sued over claims they lost money after hedge fund manager William Ackman accused the company of being a pyramid scheme.
The judge said the investors failed to show the company or CEO Michael O. Johnson knew of wrongdoing, a requirement needed to back the claims. He gave the pension fund until Aug. 27 to file a new complaint.
The judge earlier ruled that Mr. Ackman's claims alone weren't evidence that Herbalife committed fraud.
Herbalife, based in Los Angeles, relies on an outside network of distributors to sell its weight-loss shakes, supplements and other nutrition products — an approach known as multilevel marketing.
Mr. Ackman and his fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, have waged a more than two-year campaign against Herbalife, saying the nutrition company is an illegal operation and can't survive.
