Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro announced this week that three of Ohio’s public retirement systems have been appointed lead plaintiff in a securities class action lawsuit against American International Group Inc. (AIG), that alleges AIG engaged in “bid-rigging” and other fraudulent behavior.
Preliminary loss estimates to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS), State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio (STRS Ohio) and Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund could be as much as $70 to $75 million, while losses to the entire class could be billions of dollars.
“As I have continued to state, the blatant disregard for generally accepted accounting principles seems to be pervasive in business today, and my office will seek to protect all investors from such actions. Obtaining lead plaintiff status will allow Ohio to champion investor rights and corporate reform as we fight this deep corporate malaise,” Petro said.
According to Petro, the allegations against AIG include misleading investors by being part of a “bid-rigging” scheme and by the true nature of its contingent-commission arrangements with Marsh & McLennan and other insurance brokers. Two AIG executives have pleaded guilty, the documents produced to regulators and the investigations concerning “bid-rigging” and its sale of “income-smoothing” products and creation of off balance sheet partnerships lead to the appearance that AIG was aware of its wrongful conduct.
“It is time that corporate wrongdoers realize that we will not sit by the wayside. My office will continue to serve the State of Ohio and all citizens against fraudulent behavior,” Petro said.
The class action is currently pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Petro is representing Ohio public pension systems named as lead plaintiff in six cases fighting corporate fraud: Global Crossing, Marsh & McLennan, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Exxon-Mobil, and now AIG . The Attorney General is also pursuing other litigation on behalf of the state against AOL-Time Warner, Enron, Pilgrim Baxter, Putnam, and WorldCom.
Was this article valuable?
Here are more articles you may enjoy.
AT&T Says Data From Around 109M Customer Accounts Illegally Downloaded 
Biden Administration Raises FEMA Bar for Flood Resilience 
Deere Retreats From Diversity Measures After Online Attacks 
Insurers Hike Rates as Extreme Storms Like Beryl Proliferate 
