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FINANCIAL MELTDOWN

U.S. Sues Standard & Poor's for Contributing to Financial Crisis

The $5 billion civil suit accuses the credit ratings agency of fraud

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by Lisa Fine

Staff Writer t

Image: AP

The Justice Department filed a $5 billion civil lawsuit late Monday against the nation's largest credit-ratings agency, Standard & Poor's, claiming the firm gave top ratings to the substandard mortgage securities whose massive failures sparked the 2008 financial crisis.

"Put simply, this alleged conduct is egregious - and it goes to the very heart of the recent financial crisis," said Attorney General Eric Holder, the Associated Press reports. He said it was "an important step forward in our ongoing efforts to investigate and punish the conduct that is believed to have contributed to the worst economic crisis in recent history."

The suit says S & P inflated ratings and understated risks associated with mortgage securities, in order to gain more business from the investment banks that issued those securities, the AP reports.

S & P issued a statement on Tuesday saying the lawsuit is without merit, Reuters reported. "Claims that we deliberately kept ratings high when we knew they should be lower are simply not true," the statement said.

Via Reuters and Associated Press
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Comments (view in Forum)

  • CPT_Ethanolic
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    Does anyone question that Obama has done just about nothing BUT give away massive amounts of public money to private corporations?
  • martydotcom
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    If nothing else you're consistent, consistently wrong . Do you have any concept of what S&P ratings mean? Apparently you don't have a clue ( Isn't it shockingly sad that Neo hasn't got a clue?)
    Do you have the least comprehension of law regulating the investment grade manager's of pension funds, 401k, trusts, etc are allowed to purchase?? Many saw their life savings going down the tubes on supposedly totally secure triple A investment grade bonds by S&P.
    The ability on your narrow little mind to blame Obama for everything is amazing. You should be kissing Obama's/ Holder's you know what ( what a vision) for protecting whatever meger reserves you have
    How come you didn't come up with a claim it was Obama's fault the lights went out in New Orleans Super Bowl?
  • View all 14 replies >
  • twinertia
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    That fine print IS a wicked rippin' pisser of a bitch to read (or check), but this is just the state not only looking to cover its sorry arse, but sniffin' for money that doesn't belong to it (yet).
  • o
    USailCapital
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    No one has made this administration look bad. This administration did perfectly well on it's own making itself look bad. In fact, this administration doesn't look bad at all, IT IS BAD. Bush was bad, this is far worse. I actually wish we had Bush now. It would be a whole sight better than this CF.
  • Dan_Tien
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    So the government wins the $5 billion civil lawsuit, then Standard and Poor's files for bankruptcy, but it is too big to fail so the government bails them out with $10 billion.
  • martydotcom
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    S&P does is evaluate the quality of the debt and the ability to pay that debt. S&P is a rating business ( not limited to just bonds ) and they charge for their opinions. Not a company too big to fail they would be replaced by competitors like Moody's who should have been sued too
  • u
    Yank
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    Don't forget that this was started by the FM's who had this great program that turned 100000 bad investments into 1 good investment.
  • u
    RobertJHarsh
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    While their at it, they should sue, Discovery Networks, owners of TLC who ran Property Ladder and other shows who basically put "how to" instructions on how to get high interest liar loans to flip houses.
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    Republican5001
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    "The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLB), also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999,(Pub.L. 106–102, 113 Stat. 1338, enacted November 12, 1999) is an act of the 106th United States Congress (1999–2001). It repealed part of the Glass–Steagall Act of 1933, removing barriers in the market among banking companies, securities companies and insurance companies that prohibited any one institution from acting as any combination of an investment bank, a commercial bank, and an insurance company. With the passage of the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, commercial banks, investment banks, securities firms, and insurance companies were allowed to consolidate. This legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton."

    "Many believe that the Act directly helped cause the 2007 subprime mortgage financial crisis. President Barack Obama has stated that GLB led to deregulation that, among other things, allowed for the creation of giant financial supermarkets that could own investment banks, commercial banks and insurance firms, something banned since the Great Depression."

    "This legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton"
    "This legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton"
    "This legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton"

    Where was the veto(easy) button?

    Now that is cleared up...

    And since this directly contributed to the financial crisis of 2008, I sure hope the Department of Justice and the dumbass US attorney general are planning on sueing former president and democrat frontman, Bill Clinton.
  • u
    AceLuby
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    It was a bill passed by the GOP house and GOP senate... Worst bi-partisan bill in history... besides the Patriot Act.
  • o
    talkenhed
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    WIKI legislative history
    The banking industry had been seeking the repeal of the 1933 Glass–Steagall Act since the 1980s, if not earlier. In 1987 the Congressional Research Service prepared a report that explored the cases for and against preserving the Glass–Steagall act.[3]
    Respective versions of the legislation were introduced in the U.S. Senate by Phil Gramm (Republican of Texas) and in the U.S. House of Representatives by Jim Leach (R-Iowa). The third lawmaker associated with the bill was Rep. Thomas J. Bliley, Jr.(R-Virginia), Chairman of the House Commerce Committee from 1995 to 2001.
    During debate in the House of Representatives, Rep. John Dingell (Democrat of Michigan) argued that the bill would result in banks becoming "too big to fail." Dingell further argued that this would necessarily result in a bailout by the Federal Government.[4]
  • PoliticalSpice
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    You are correct. Glass-Seagull was enacted under FDR. It worked as it for decades. It should be re-enacted. Clinton should never have repealed it.
  • o
    Republican5001
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    @PoliticalSpice since I work in the field, that is one I do scratch my head about from my teammates. Perhaps a discussion for another time.
  • WMCOL
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    Right on Justice Department! S&P needs to be downgraded. They had gotten too big for their breeches and definitely made decisions to enhance their positions which were not in the best interest of the economy. But this will not go anywhere. S&P has right to rate markets anyway they see fit. Gonna be a tuff case for Justice to make. They downgraded the Obama economy and that is probably driving some of the urge by Justice to sue them. Pay back time.
  • u
    crusader
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    Can we add the cast of Jersey Shore, Honey Boo Boo and most 90% of all reality stars to that suit. I have never watched any of those shows but the advertisements alone annoy me. The charge is for dumbing down America. The nations average IQ drops a little with each new episode of these shows.
  • jessejaymes
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    @crusader You most certainly may add those shows. And add in Buck Wild while you're at it. Let's sue them all for terminal stupidity.
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    crusader
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    @jessejaymes I ahve never heard of Buck Wild but most likely not missing anything. I am sure we could add many more shows to our terminal stupidity suit, and lets not get started with movies.
    Have you ever heard of the famous lawyer Dickie Scruggs? If only he were still alive, and had not lost his license he could actually win this case. He made an estimated 1 billion suing large corporations and only once went to trial. But he also cheated clients and lawyers who worked for him, paid off crooked doctors and bribed judges.
  • jessejaymes
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    @crusader Buck Wild is the new hillbilly "jersey shore" I downloaded the first episode to see what the furor was about. More terminally stupid people.
  • View all 8 replies >
  • jessejaymes
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    Am I the only one who has noticed that when the wealthy cons and steals from other wealthy people like Madoff they go to prison. But if they steal and con the American general public the govt simply lets them get off with a fine?
  • harold_lloyd
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    @jessejaymes
    Not so, at least it didn't used to be so. Remember the S&L crisis in the 1980s.

    S&Ls made long-term loans at fixed interest using short-term money. When the interest rate increased, the S&Ls could not attract adequate capital and became insolvent. Rather than admit to insolvency, some CEOs of S&Ls became "reactive" frauds by inventing creative accounting strategies that turned their businesses into Ponzi schemes that looked highly profitable, attracting more investors and growing rapidly, while actually losing money.

    The push of the Reagan administration for deregulation made it harder to catch the fraud.

    It meant that the fraud continued longer and increased the economic losses, and it attracted opportunists who were looking for businesses they could subvert into Ponzi schemes.

    Charles Keating paid $51 million from Michael Milken's junk bond operation for Lincoln Savings and Loan, which at the time had a negative net worth exceeding $100 million. He went to jail, along with many others.
  • View all 12 replies >
  • Brychan
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    I think the average American should sue the US govt as it was previous administrations both Rep and Dem, that removed the road blocks that allowed the whole mess to happen in the first place.
    But I guess America can't truly be free without free and unfettered capitalism, no matter how much damage it does to America.
    It's funny though, the idea of free and unfettered capitalism was tossed right out the window the minute some jackass came up with "Too big to fail". Particularily when it comes to the companies that were involved in the scam.
    Face it, there's only two kinds of people that would think providing low interest mortgages to high risk people is a good idea, idiots and scam artists.
  • jaybebo84
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    Let me get this right...this administration is going to sue Standard & Poor for doing what the Clinton Adminstration asked banks to do in the first place...give home loans to those which did not have the financial means to pay them back...especially after their ARM hit the 5-, 10-, 15-year mark...which caused their interest rate to skyrocket on principal they had made minimal, if any, payments to...these liberals are just trying to make those, which did what they wanted, suffer for their own shortsigthedness about two decades ago...
  • jaybebo84
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    @thatgirl I am aware of this...however, their ratings prompted more investors to put money into mortgage-backed securities...which allowed banks to take more risks in the sub-prime industry, which was pushed by the Clinton Administration to flourish...
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    thatgirl
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    @jaybebo84 If you've read anything more than just superficial gloss-overs of the subprime crisis, you would see that the Clinton Administration had very little to do with encouraging the financial institutions to behave with such avarice and unmitigated greed.
  • View all 12 replies >
  • Mbjhug
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    @Canoochee That's rich. All it took was a little of their own medicine, and they got paid on the spot.

    I wonder if they had to make sure the check cleared before they opened the bank back up....
  • Canoochee
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    @Mbjhug LOL Good point.

    There at least three ongoing lawsuits for over 1 Billion each against them for shady business practices. Still waiting on my part of one of them that has been settled.
  • View all 8 replies >
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    crusader
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    It is obvious that S & P did keep ratings too high for many securities, but hindsight is always 20/20. It must be proven that they did so for fraudulent reasons and not just made poor decisions. I think with our increasing debt America is still rated higher than it should be.
  • u
    ctc
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    If you're Standard & Poor's, and you hold yourself out as the preeminent financial rating company in the country if not the world, and you not only missed the boat on predicting the housing collapse but tacitly approved these mortgage instruments in a scheme that ran five levels deep, you should pay dearly for the right to continue doing business.
    Also, since it appears no one is going to jail, it's nice that some of these Wall Street scammer/make money out of thin air types are finally working for us....the little guys.....the American people.
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