Labaton Sucharow represents the Lead Plaintiff Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, and Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund, along with the Attorney General of the State of Ohio, in In re American International Group, Inc. Securities Litigation, a securities fraud class action pending before the Honorable John E. Sprizzo in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The case alleges numerous securities violations against American International Group (“AIG”) and twenty-one other defendants, including Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg, AIG’s former long-time Chairman and CEO; PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Company’s outside auditors; and General Reinsurance Corp. (“Gen Re”), a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary that allegedly structured and executed a $500 million sham reinsurance agreement that allowed AIG to improperly improve its reported reserves. On May 31, 2005, AIG filed its 2004 Form 10-K, restating the Company’s earnings, reducing its net income from 2000 through 2004 by $3.9 billion, and wiping out $2.26 billion of shareholders’ equity.

The Court has ruled on all outstanding motions to dismiss and has denied twenty-one of them in their entirety. Judge Sprizzo’s denial of Gen Re’s motion to dismiss was particularly significant. Gen Re had argued that its alleged misconduct amounted to merely “aiding and abetting,” which is a claim that can only be brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission and not by private plaintiffs. The Court rejected this argument, relying on newly developing precedent, to find that Gen Re could be held liable as a primary violator for scheme liability under the Securities Exchange Act.

Fact discovery in the case is well under way, and Defendants and non-parties have produced more than forty-five million pages of documents. The deadline for fact discovery is December 2009.

On October 3, 2008, a $97.5 million Settlement between the Lead Plaintiff and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP was announced. The Settlement, which still must be approved by the Court, is believed to be the eighth largest by an accounting firm to settle a securities fraud class action.