The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - The state attorney general said Tuesday he plans to sue Exxon Mobil Corp. on behalf of thousands of retired Ohioans, saying the company misled investors about the value of its oil reserves.

Retirement systems for teachers and other public employees lost $40 million to $120 million in investments as a result of the company's actions, Attorney General Jim Petro said.

Exxon "grossly overstated" the value of its shares during merger negotiations with Mobil because it didn't reduce the value of its oil fields when prices dropped in the 1990s, Petro said.

This meant investors got less value from the merged company's shares than they should have, he said. The losses affected the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System and the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio.

Petro likened the lawsuit to one he filed last summer against media conglomerate AOL Time Warner to recover hundreds of millions of dollars in investments lost by state retirement funds. These corporations "have strict standards they need to apply. They are publicly traded companies, they are not companies that on a whim can do whatever they want," Petro said.

Ohio is seeking to be lead plaintiff in the class-action lawsuit against Exxon Mobil because of the state's large losses.

An Exxon Mobil spokeswoman said the company was reviewing the news of the pending lawsuit. The firm "takes exception to any accusation that we issued false and misleading financial statements and that the merger was not in the best interest of shareholders," spokeswoman Sandra Duhe said.