FOR RELEASE:

Hevesi Announces Additional Settlements of $428.4 Million in WorldCom Securities Litigation, Set for Trial on March 17, 2005
Four Underwriter Defendants Are All Paying at Percentages Higher
than the Bond Portion of the Citigroup Settlement

Payments Bring the Total Recovery for WorldCom Class to $3.56 Billion,
Surpassing Cendant as the Largest Recovery Ever

Four additional investment banking firms that participated as underwriters in WorldCom’s May 2001 bond offering have agreed to pay a total of $428.4 million to settle the claims asserted against them in the WorldCom Securities Litigation, Alan G. Hevesi, New York State Comptroller and sole Trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund and Court-appointed Lead Plaintiff, announced today.
The four investment banks are: ABN AMRO Incorporated (paying $278,365,600); Mitsubishi Securities International plc (paying $75,000,000); BNP Paribas Securities Corp. (paying $37,500,000); and Mizuho International (paying $37,500,000). Together, they underwrote 12% of the bonds issued in WorldCom’s May 2001 offering. They did not participate in the May 2000 bond offering and, thus, there were no claims asserted against these firms based on that offering.

These amounts, on a percentage basis, are higher than the rates established by the amount the Citigroup Defendants agreed in May 2004 to pay to settle the bond portions of the claims against them. None of these entities was a lead underwriter for the May 2001 offering.

“We are very pleased to have been able to obtain these additional excellent recoveries for the Class from these firms, which we commend for putting this issue behind them. While we remain willing to talk with other defendants about potential settlements, we are looking forward to the start of trial against any remaining defendants next week,” Hevesi said.

This settlement follows the $460.5 million settlement with Bank of America announced on March 3, and the $100.3 million settlement with Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse First Boston, and UBS Warburg announced on March 4, for which the parties to those settlements are seeking preliminary approval on March 10, and the $2.575 billion settlement with the Citigroup Defendants, which was approved by United States District Court Judge Denise Cote on November 12, 2004.

If these settlements and the settlements announced on March 3 and 4, 2005, are approved by the Court, this will bring the total recovery to date to $3.56 billion, which surpasses the largest recovery previously achieved in a securities class action, $3.18 billion, in the Cendant Corporation litigation, in which Hevesi served as one of three lead plaintiffs in his capacity as Comptroller of the City of New York.

Hevesi is the Court-appointed Lead Plaintiff in the consolidated securities class action, In re WorldCom, Inc. Securities Litigation, which is pending before Judge Cote.

The NYSCRF and investor class are represented by the law firms of Barrack, Rodos & Bacine and Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, who were appointed as Lead Counsel by Judge Cote in August 2002. The two firms also served as Lead Counsel in the Cendant class action.

To obtain further information concerning that Settlement and the submission of proof of claim forms, investors may access the website maintained by Lead Counsel, at www.worldcomlitigation.com.

Albany Phone: (518) 474-4015  Fax:(518) 473-8940
NYC Phone: (212) 681-4825  Fax:(212) 681-4468
Internet: http://www.osc.state.ny.us
E-Mail:press@osc.state.ny.us