NJ sues Merrill Lynch over $300 mln stock purchase

NEW YORK, July 28 (Reuters) - New Jersey sued Merrill Lynch for selling its pensions $300 million of preferred stock in January 2008 "based on misleading information" about the brokerage's finances, the state attorney general said on Tuesday.

Anne Milgram, the state attorney general, said in a statement that the lawsuit, filed in the Law Division of state Superior Court in Hudson County, also names Bank of America Corp as a defendant.

Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch last year and is named as "a successor entity," Milgram said.