COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio's attorney general is suing Meta, formerly known as Facebook, over more than $100 billion in investment losses.
The lawsuit filed is on behalf of OPERS — the state's largest public employee pension system. Our verify team recently heard from a viewer questioning the legality of the suit
The question from 10TV viewer Eugene Hawkins:
"I'd like to verify a news story concerning Attorney General Yost investigating OPERS security investments in Facebook. Is this legal?
The sources: To answer Eugene's question our sources are legal experts David Meyer located here in Columbus and Sabrina Shaheen Cronin out of Michigan.
The answer: Yes.
Here’s what we found:
"OPERS is an entity that's a shareholder of Facebook. So any shareholder of a publicly-traded company can file a securities lawsuit against the company for alleged violations of securities laws,” said Meyers.
"Facebook went public back several years ago, and when they went public, they have a duty to its shareholders,” said Shaheen Cronin. “And part of that duty is to not do anything fraudulent.”
Our experts say this is going to be a timely and expensive process as it plays out through the courts.
"Class actions typically take a very long time,” explained Shaheen Cronin. “Most lawsuits in general take a long time. But then when dealing with multiple, multiple plaintiffs, as well as a very large corporation, such as Metaverse, it will take a long time, unless a court dismisses the action.”
“These lawsuits are expensive,” said Meyers. “But most of these lawsuits are pursued by private lawyers that team up with, in this case, the state of Ohio, and the at the end of the day, most of these lawyers, even we take cases on a contingency fee. So the lawyers typically get paid in these cases only if they prevailed if money is recovered."
Have something you’d like us to verify? Send us an email to verify@10TV.com.