A class-action lawsuit has been filed against IndyMac Bancorp Inc., accusing it of issuing misleading information that artificially inflated the Pasadena-based lender’s stock price.

The suit was filed June 11 on behalf of purchasers of IndyMac common stock between Aug. 16, 2007 and May 12, 2008. Shares were trading around $20 per share in mid-August and are now below $1.50. The suit names Chief Executive Michael Perry and Chief Financial Officer A. Scott Keys in the complaint.

The complaint alleges the company issued “materially false and misleading statements regarding the company’s business and financial results” and that the lender’s full exposure to non-performing assets was downplayed or concealed.

“We have reviewed the lawsuit and feel it is without merit and we will vigorously defend ourselves,” IndyMac spokesman Evan Wagner said Friday morning.

Grove Nichols, IndyMac’s Communications Director, said in a posting on the company’s Web site Friday that the suit is “bogus” and that missing “a good faith forecast which contains appropriate disclosures of risk factors does not constitute a securities law violation.”

Here

is the full IndyMac posting.

Shares in IndyMac hit a 52-week low Thursday and continued to drop another 14 percent in early trading Friday to $1.37.