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California's attorney general sued Tuesday State Street Bank, a leading world provider of financial services, for 200 million dollars, in an alleged fraud scheme involving two state pension funds.
Attorney General Edmund Brown filed suit against the bank for committing "unconscionable fraud" against California's two largest pension funds CalPERS and CalSTRS, a statement from his office said.
The lawsuit said the bank had "illegally overcharged CalPERS and CalSTRS for the costs of executing foreign currency trades since 2001.
"Over a period of eight years, State Street bankers committed unconscionable fraud by misappropriating millions of dollars that rightfully belonged to California's public pension funds," Brown said in the statement.
"This is just the latest example of how clever financial traders violate laws and rip off the public trust," he added.
Brown's office estimated the pension funds were overcharged by more than 56.6 million dollars over eight years. The lawsuit is asking for triple California's damages in addition to civil penalties and court costs.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) are the state's two largest pension funds and among the largest in the United States.
