New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray have filed petitions seeking co-lead plaintiff status in a securities fraud action against BP Plc.

DiNapoli oversees New York's $132 billion Common Retirement Fund. Four of Ohio's pension funds have combined assets of about $150 billion.

"By forming a partnership between New York and Ohio, we aim to compensate investors for what we believe was securities fraud and effect real change in the way BP and other companies do business," said Cordray.

DiNapoli said joining with Ohio provides "the best chance for recovering losses due to BP's apparent misconduct."

DiNapoli and Cordray said BP made misleading statements about its safety protocols and record that led to BP stock trading at artificially inflated prices.

Since the Deepwater Horizon explosion in April and the oil spill that followed in the Gulf of Mexico, BP's stock has fallen about 40 percent, DiNapoli and Cordray said, causing the five pension funds more than $200 million in estimated losses.

BP did not have an immediate comment about the petition filed by New York and Ohio.

Last month, DiNapoli hired a law firm for representation on behalf of the New York State Common Retirement Fund in a class-action lawsuit against BP Plc.

At the time of the April disaster, the New York State Common Retirement Fund held more than 19 million shares in the oil giant.

The fund provides benefits to more than 1 million active and retired state and local government employees, police officers and firefighters.

A New Orleans law firm filed suit against BP this week, claiming the company failed to disclose that its drilling operations were run in a "highly reckless manner" and didn't have a plan to respond to an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which it has been touting as a growth area since June 2005.