Kansas City, Mo. ? A class-action lawsuit filed against Interstate Bakeries Corp. claims the maker of Wonder Bread made false and misleading statements that caused its stock to be artificially inflated last fall.

The lawsuit contends that officers — including chairman Charles Sullivan and chief financial officer Frank Coffey — misled investors during a Sept. 17 conference call in which Coffey said cake sales were bouncing back after dipping because of warm weather.

Interstate officials said they had not seen the lawsuit and had no comment.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday on behalf of anyone who owned Interstate’s stock between Sept. 17 and Dec. 17, 2002, claims the Kansas City, Mo.-based company “was actually experiencing a negative variance with respect to cake sales as compared with the prior year.”

Interstate Bakeries has 62 bread and cake bakeries around the country.