Like Tyco, Elan has been accused of aggressive accounting, and like Tyco, Elan has received a clean bill of health from the SEC.

But this has not prevented a slew of class action law suits being filed by investors both against the company and its directors and officers in the past two days against the Irish pharmaceutical company.

The lawsuits have been brought on behalf of purchasers of securities of Elan, alleging violations of the US federal securities laws.

Elan has said it intends to vigorously defend these actions. It also claims to have ceased some of its more-aggressive practices.

Elan has two subsidiaries in Bermuda through which it is accused of funnelling money via a complex money trail which has got investors jittery.

The Irish drugs company is said to have used its Bermuda connections to raise $950 million, according to reports from the United Kingdom.

Pressure was growing on the management of Elan as it emerged that the Irish drugs company had used the two controversial Bermuda-based vehicles to raise $950 million over the past three years.

Elan's shares fell a further 18 percent on the Dublin Stock Exchange, and has lost overall nearly 70 percent of its value, as lawyers in America accused the company of cheating shareholders with misleading statements and artificially inflated accounts.

In 1999 and 2000, Elan transferred parcels of quoted and unquoted securities into the vehicles, then invited banks and financial institutions to invest in them over a five-year period.

Investors in the EPI01 and EPI02 are not allowed to sell any of the securities, of which only 40 percent are traded publicly, with the exception that they can accept take-over offers.

The two vehicles are controlled by boards of directors appointed by their investors. Mr Lynch said he did not know the identity of these directors.

The entities were previously included in Elan's Irish and British accounts but not in the company's accounts in the US - where the majority of its investors are.