U.S. Judge Denny Chin (SDNY) has granted a motion filed by plaintiffs in the securities class action against Bank of America to partially lift the discovery stay in the case. The court’s ruling will provide the plaintiffs with access to documents BofA has already provided to Congress and investigators related to its acquisition of Merrill Lynch, Global Pensions reports.
The five pension fund plaintiffs leading the securities class action are: State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio; the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System; the Teacher Retirement System of Texas; Stichting Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn, represented by PGGM Vermogensbeheer B.V.; and Fjarde AP-Fonden.
On behalf of OPERS, Ohio AG Richard Cordray commented that
Recent testimony to Congress suggests that BofA’s executives knew that Merrill Lynch was suffering billions of dollars of widening losses before the shareholder vote, yet improperly withheld this information from investors. We are now rigorously exploring these facts in our shareholder class action against BofA.
