General Motors Co.’s delayed decision to recall almost 2.6 million cars for ignition-switch defects is being investigated by Connecticut and Indiana attorneys general.

GM has acknowledged 13 deaths tied to the defect, which can cut power to the vehicles’ steering and brakes and prevent air bags from deploying in a crash. Company executives were aware of the defect for at least a decade before the recall.

Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen is part of “a multistate investigation, and that investigation is active and ongoing,” his spokeswoman, Jaclyn Falkowski, said today in an e-mail, declining to say more.

Jaime Barb, a spokeswoman for Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller earlier today said his office was also looking at GM’s handling of the recall.

The Detroit-based company this month fired 15 people it said played a role in the recall delay. It announced the firings immediately after releasing the results of an internal investigation led by former Chicago U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas, now chairman of the law firm Jenner & Block LLC.

GM faces about 85 federal lawsuits filed by car owners claiming their vehicles lost value as a result of the recall and more claims over injuries and deaths attributed to crashes.

Cases Moved

Federal judges two days ago transferred the economic-loss cases filed across the nation to U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in New York. He will preside over pretrial litigation and disclosure of evidence.

James Cain, a spokesman for GM, declined today to comment on the Indiana and Connecticut investigations deferring to company filings and the Valukas report.

In an April filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, GM said it was the subject of “various inquiries, investigations, subpoenas and requests for information” from the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in New York, the U.S. Congress, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the SEC and one state’s attorney general.

The company said that it was cooperating fully in those probes and that they might “result in the imposition of damages, fines or civil and criminal penalties.”