Securities Litigation News

A New York judge has approved Bank of America's $2.43 billion settlement of a class action lawsuit brought by shareholders over the company's acquisition of former competitor Merrill Lynch.

Amid the fusillade of securities suits against the banks that sponsored and underwrote mortgage-backed notes, there have been a couple of reasons to pay particular attention to the Franco-Belgian bank Dexia’s case against JPMorgan Chase and its predecessors Bear Stearns and WaMu Mortgage. For starters, it was a big case: $1.6 billion in MBS and supposed damages of about $800 million. Moreover, Dexia’s lawyers at Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann had piled allegations into an amended complaint so apparently damning that it was the basis of a splashy story in The New York Times. And finally, the case was shaping up as a bellwether for MBS claims by individual investors. The litigation was on the rocket docket of U.S. Senior District Judge Jed Rakoff of Manhattan, who denied the bank’s motion to dismiss last September and talked in a recent hearing about a July trial date on Dexia’s claims. Given the resounding victory Rakoff delivered in February to the bond insurer Assured Guaranty in Assured’s MBS case against Flagstar Bank, the Dexia case seemed like it could be a perfect storm for defendants: a strong plaintiffs’ firm trying a high-profile case before a judge with demonstrated skepticism for bank defenses.

A Manhattan federal judge on Monday signaled he will not rubber-stamp Citigroup Inc's proposed $590 million settlement of a shareholder lawsuit accusing it of hiding tens of billions of dollars of toxic mortgage assets.