Detroit Police/Fire Want Lead in Delphi Suit

May 9, 2005 (PLANSPONSOR.com)—Detroit's Police and Fire Retirement System asked a federal judge in US District Court in Detroit to name the retirement system as the lead plaintiff in a class-action shareholder lawsuit against Delphi Corp., the Detroit News reported.

The request comes a day after the retirement system filed a lawsuit against the auto parts supplier.

The pension fund’s lawsuit against Delphi, the world’s largest auto parts supplier, and its executives is one of many filed by both individual shareholders and government pension funds across the country accusing the firm of failing to disclose the company’s true financial and operating condition by making misleading statements about its stock price. The retirement system’s lawsuit says that Delphi stock had dropped from $17.40 a share to $3.30.

Delphi has said that it overstated 2001 pretax income by about $61 million as a result of bookkeeping errors, and that $237 million paid to former parent General Motors Corp. in 2000, was also improperly accounted for, which has led to a probe of the company’s accounting practices by the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspectors, and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the News reported.

The Detroit’s Police and Fire Retirement System lost nearly $920,000 of its $3.4 million investment in Delphi since January 2001, according to the report.

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