Merrill Lynch & Co. confirmed on Friday that it has agreed to pay $475 million in cash to settle a securities class action suit led by the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, Bloomberg reports. The Ohio pension fund and other investors filed lawsuits beginning in October 2007 after Merrill Lynch wrote down billions of dollars in assets backed by subprime mortgages. The securities class action issued false and misleading statements about collateralized debt obligations and other assets backed by subprime mortgages, artificially inflating Merrill Lynch’s shares.
According to RiskMetrics’ Securities Class Action Services database, co-lead counsel in the case are the law firms Barrack, Rodos & Bacine; Berger & Montague; and Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer.
