Equity Bancshares, Inc. (EQBK) Accused of Misleading Investors

According to the complaint for alleged violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 between May 11, 2018 and April 22, 2019, Equity Bancshares, Inc. (EQBK) has been deceiving investors about its credit operations. Since 2018, Equity Bancshares had stated in various filings that its disclosure controls and procedures were effective. However, it failed to disclose that it actually lacked adequate internal controls to asses credit risk, and, as a result, was likely to incur significant losses for certain substandard loans. The truth emerged in January 2019, when Equity Bancshares disclosed that a credit relationship had been downgraded. On this news, Equity Bancshares fell more than 6% to close at $32.15 per share on January 24, 2019. In April 2019, Equity Bancshares disclosed that a $14.5 million provision for loss against a credit relationship had impacted its financial results for first quarter 2019. On this news, Equity Bancshares fell more than 16% to close at $24.71 per share on April 23, 2019, and has yet to recover.