MOSCOW, April 19 - RAPSI. The U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld the lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit filed by shareholders of Mechel mining corporation against the company and its management, according to the court judgment made available to the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.ru).

The plaintiffs claimed compensation from Mechel on the grounds that it allegedly withheld important information.

The plaintiffs are Mechel shareholders who purchased shares from October 3, 2007 to July 25, 2008. According to the court, the lawsuit was lodged in 2009 against Mechel, Chairman of the Board Igor Zyuzin and vice presidents Stanislav Ploschenko and Vladimir Polin. The plaintiffs said Mechel concealed information about the reasons behind a recent highly profitable period.

The plaintiffs alleged that Mechel informed investors that its success was due to the prevailing high prices for its products throughout the world. Meanwhile, the antimonopoly service later uncovered that the high profits were due to a variety of illegal anticompetitive practices.

The watchdog fined Mechel 797.7 million rubles ($27 million) in August 2009 for violating competition law.

The plaintiffs sought to declare Mechel's activities to be fraud as it failed to inform investors that it was investigated by the authorities and faced fines and possibly decreased revenues.

Mechel is one of Russia's leading mining and metallurgical companies.