Oregon, on behalf of Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund and Oregon Common School Fund, is settling a class-action lawsuit against Bank of New York Mellon Corp. for $180 million, said Michael Cox, spokesman for state Treasurer Ted Wheeler, in an e-mail.
Oregon was the lead plaintiff in the class-action filed in February 2012 seeking losses suffered by the $70.3 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, Salem, and the $1.5 billion Oregon Common School Fund, Salem, and other shareholders, including public pension funds and mutual funds, when BNY Mellon's stock price fell after news reports about BNY Mellon's alleged foreign-exchange fraud.
Whistleblowers alleged that BNY Mellon rigged prices to obtain higher profits; news of the alleged fraud resulted in a 41% drop between April 2008 and June 2011 in BNY Mellon's share price.
The settlement will be submitted for preliminary approval within the next 30 days to U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in New York. If the judge initially approves the settlement, notices will be sent to class members and the agreement will then be submitted to the judge for final approval later this year.
In a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, BNY Mellon said it had reached a $180 million settlement in regard to a “pending foreign exchange-related putative class-action lawsuit asserting securities law violations.”
“This settlement effectively resolves virtually all of the currently pending foreign exchange-related actions, with the exception of several lawsuits brought by individual customers. The settlement is subject to court approval,” the statement said.
Kevin Heine, BNY Mellon spokesman, declined to comment beyond the statement in the SEC filing.
