Oregon has filed a securities lawsuit against the petrochemical giant, BP. The state wants to recover investment losses triggered by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill two years ago.
The lawsuit alleges that investors, like the state, were misled about the safety of deepwater drilling. Lawyers say BP made "materially false" and "misleading" statements. James Sinks of the Oregon State Treasury says state lawyers did their due diligence before filing, and are confident. /p>
Sinks said, "Oregon looks very carefully of at whether to file a suit before you even get to the point of filing paperwork. So there's a high degree of confidence that there is a case here."
E-mails to BP asking for comment were not immediately returned. Oregon's treasurer and attorney general are seeking to recover about $19 million dollars that the state Public Employees Retirement Fund and other state funds lost as a result of the disaster.
BP's stock dropped almost 50 percent in the aftermath.
