Ohio a lead plaintiff in BP oil spill lawsuit

12/29/2010

The New York and Ohio state pension funds will be the lead plaintiffs in shareholder litigation against BP PLC and company directors and managers over investment losses suffered in the wake of the Gulf oil spill.

U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison in Houston named New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Ohio State Attorney General Richard Cordray, who head their states' public employee pension funds, as lead plaintiffs for investors who bought BP common stock or American depositary receipts from June, 2005, to June, 2010. The judge also named four individual investors as lead plaintiffs for a smaller class of investors who bought common shares of London-based BP or American depositary receipts from March, 2009, to April 20, 2010, the date the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded.