Merrill Lynch may have misrepresented to investors its financial condition including its failure to timely write down impaired mortgage related assets from its balance sheet.

This is a securities class action lawsuit against Merrill Lynch; certain officers and directors; certain underwriters of Merrill Lynch' securities; and Deloitte & Touche as auditor.

The class action complaint alleges that from 2006 through the end of 2008 Merrill Lynch issued a series of preferred stock and bond offerings contained untrue statements of material facts and omissions of material facts. Specifically, the documents memorializing the offerings misstated Merrill Lynch's financial condition and failed to disclose that Merrill Lynch bore massive exposure to losses from investments tied to subprime and other mortgages, and was responsible for significant liability arising out of its participation in the market for auction rate securities ("ARS"). Further, Merrill Lynch improperly valued mortgage - backed assets on its books, and failed to account for its contingent obligations in the ARS market.

Ultimately, after all of the offerings had been completed, and after the subprime mortgage market had collapsed, Merrill Lynch disclosed its exposure to that market and wrote down the value of its mortgage-backed assets by billions of dollars. Those disclosures revealed the truth about Merrill Lynch's financial condition, and caused material declines in the value of the securities sold through the offerings, resulting in harm to Plaintiffs and the Class.

Plaintiffs bring this action to recover these damages under the Securities Act. The securities at issue are : Merrill Lynch Trust I Preferred Securities; Merrill Lynch Floating Rate Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series 5; Merrill Lynch Trust II Preferred Securities; Merrill Lynch Trust III Preferred Securities; Merrill Lynch 8.625% Non-Cumulative Preferred Stock, Series 8; Merrill Lynch Medium-Term Notes, Series C; Merrill Lynch 6.11 % Subordinated Notes due January 29, 2037; Merrill Lynch 5.70% Subordinated Notes due May 2, 2017; Merrill Lynch 6.05% Medium-Term Notes, Series C; Merrill Lynch 6.40% Medium-Term Notes, Series C; Merrill Lynch Accelerated Return Notes; Merrill Lynch 5.45% Medium-Term Notes, Series C; Merrill Lynch 6.15% Medium-Term Notes, Series C; Merrill Lynch 6.875% Medium-Term Notes, Series C; Merrill Lynch 7.75% Subordinated Notes Due May 14,