New York comptroller named as lead plaintiff in lawsuit against CrowdStrike

AUSTIN, Texas (WRGB) — New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli has been named as the lead plaintiff in a securities fraud class action lawsuit against CrowdStrike Holdings Inc., following the worldwide outage over the summer.

DiNapoli, a trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, was named in the Wednesday court filing, playing out in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. The suit also listed the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi, LS Value Equity DBI and LS Value Equity Global.

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“CrowdStrike misled investors by falsely touting its safeguards and quality assurance,” DiNapoli said in a release. “Its actual failure to meet industry standards and deficient software testing and security processes were exposed after it caused one of the largest cyber-disasters in history leading to a worldwide shutdown and billions in losses to investors. As lead plaintiff, we look to hold company leadership accountable for misleading investors. Moreover, this action may present opportunities for corporate governance reforms to strengthen the company and protect shareholder value.”

The class in this action will be represented by Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman and local Texas counsel Martin & Drought.

CrowdStrike is also facing legal action from its shareholders, as well as Delta Air Lines, in connection with the July outage, which came about as the result of a software update.