Pension funds to sue JPMorgan Chase, Fitch and Moody’s

Scott & Scott attorney David Scott said his law firm was already representing a large US public retirement system and was in touch with several other US pension funds on the matter.

He also said: "We have not spoken to any foreign pension funds yet, but I suspect we may hear from them."

The class action - which was removed from state court and is now pending in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York - alleges the information included in the registration statement and prospectus summaries associated with 12 JPMorgan issuing trusts was "false and misleading".

The defendants include JPMorgan, including some of its subsidiaries and affiliates, the directors at JPMorgan, who signed the registration statement and Fitch and Moody's, which allegedly facilitated the sale of those certificates.

A lead plaintiff in the class action has not been appointed yet.

JPMorgan Chase, Fitch and Moody's did not immediately return calls and emails seeking comment.

In July, the California Public Employees' Retirement System filed a suit against Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's stating they granted "wildly inaccurate and unreasonably high" ratings to securities that eventually failed. (Global Pensions; July 15, 2009)