Amazon shareholders has brought several class action suits against the online giant for misleading them over the state of its finances.

The lawsuits - filed in Washington - state that Amazon "issued a series of materially false and misleading statements which artificially inflated the price of Amazon securities" during February and March this year. They also claim that Amazon "inflated" the money it made from start-ups it had invested in. It also failed to say that this "revenue" was mostly in the form of shares.

The suits have been filed by several companies representing stockholders in the company.

Amazon, of course, denied the allegations. "We have always worked hard to be extremely open, careful and accurate in our public disclosures," it said. "It is clear these lawsuits are without merit, and we expect that they will be dismissed by the court."

A fortnight ago, the FBI announced it was investigating Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos over share-selling just prior to publication to a negative financial report. ®

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