US District Court Judge William Pauley III has approved a $335M settlement in a securities fraud case against Bank of America (BAC). This one of the largest class action settlements involving securities buyer claims related to the 2008 financial crisis. Among the investors that will be able to avail of the settlement are the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System (PSERS), the Anchorage Fire and Police Retirement Fund, the Arkansas Teacher Retirement Fund, a number of asset managers, and two trade unions.
PSERS served as lead plaintiff for those that purchased the bank’s common stock or common equivalent securities on a US public exchanges and later sustained losses between 2/27/09 through 10/19/10. According to a PSERS Spokesperson, the Pennsylvania retirement plan lost approximately $8M of its holdings with Bank of America.
The mortgage-backed securities case accused Bank of America of misleading investors about the position it took in MBSs and of hiding debt. They also claim that the bank compelled them to purchase Bank of America stock that was sold to pay back $45B of federal bailout funds from TARP. The plaintiffs alleged that the bank was aware that it could not raise enough capital to avoid TARP restrictions on executive salaries if it were to disclose that it might have to buy back billions of dollars of securities that were backed by high-risk loans.
They also accused Bank of America of knowing there were issues involving records in the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems registry and that it could not legally foreclose on thousands of mortgages that were delinquent as a result.
The mortgage-backed securities fraud class action lawsuit was in litigation for six years.
Our mortgage-backed securities fraud lawyers are here to help investors try to recoup their investor fraud losses. Contact The SSEK Partners Group today.
Judge approves $335M settlement for PSERS, other investors, Central Penn Business Journal, December 30, 2016