A lawsuit seeking class action status was filed this week against the American International Group Inc. for alleged violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act related to a loss of value of AIG stock caused by allegations of bid-rigging activities in an investigation from New York Attorney General Elliott Spitzer.

The news of the lawsuit, revealed by Business Insurance magazine on Wednesday, said that New York-based law firm Wolf Poppler Llp filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, on behalf of present and former employees of AIG.

BI reported that the suit claims AIG failed to disclose the payment of contingent commissions to brokers in a bid-rigging scheme created to shield itself and certain other insurers from competition.

In addition, the suit cites two executives of an AIG unit pleading guilty to felony charges in the matter as being impetus for a significant stock decline.

Defendants in the suit are AIG chairman and CEO Maurice ?Hank? Greenberg and members of the company?s retirement board, for their alleged breach of fiduciary duties because they knew or should have known that the company?s securities were no longer a prudent investment.

Other companies that have come under Mr. Spitzer?s spotlight have also stirred the attention of legal firms investigating the possibility of bringing class action suits.

Last month, AXIS Capital was targeted by law firms Schatz & Nobel and Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudmand & Robbins in New York claiming that AXIS was involved in the payment of controversial ?contingent commissions? ? a type of reward payment made by insurers to brokers who placed business with them ? which is alleged to have improperly influenced the insurance bid-making process.

And in October, law firm Schatz & Nobel, Pc said it was looking at taking class action on behalf of ACE employees who may have seen their retirement savings plans hit by a drop in the value of ACE shares, with the value of the company?s shares falling on the news that they were named in Mr. Spitzer?s investigations of broking giant Marsh & McLennan. The claim concerned whether ACE participated in alleged insurance bid-rigging schemes and whether ACE customers or employees were harmed by these schemes.

A second law firm Schiffrin & Barroway said it was looking at acting on behalf of investors. That complaint charged that ACE CEO Evan Greenberg, chairman Brian Duperreault, and chief financial officer Philip Bancroft were in violation of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act.