Government won't sue Moody's credit rating firm for criminal fraud despite finding evidence!

SEC won't pursue Moody's fraud case
By Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
September 1, 2010


Moody's, one of three major credit-rating firms that misjudged many of the securities at the center of the financial crisis, escaped legal action Tuesday when federal regulators said they would not sue the company for fraud despite finding evidence that the firm misled investors.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Moody's executives discovered they had issued overly optimistic ratings but decided not to correct them out of concern that "downgrades could negatively affect Moody's reputation."

The SEC said it chose not to file suit because of "jurisdictional" limitations. The activities at the center of the SEC investigation took place in Europe, beyond the agency's reach at the time.

But the agency said it might have made a different decision under the terms of the legislation enacted this summer to overhaul financial regulations. The bill gave the SEC the power to sue credit-rating firms engaged in "otherwise extraterritorial fraudulent misconduct."

"Moody's is pleased that this matter has been resolved and that the commission determined the investigation should be closed without pursuing any enforcement action," Michael Adler, a Moody's spokesman, said Tuesday.

The big three firms - Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings - have faced far less regulatory and legal action than banks and other financial firms implicated in the meltdown. Federal regulators haven't sued any of the credit-rating firms. And the new financial regulatory law does not require an overhaul of the industry.

Read the full article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/31/AR2010083106192.html

If one didn't know better one would think that Wall Street is calling the shots in the SEC. Duh .... BBI

Then the SEC could call in a drone strike on Muddy's.

the government is one of the collaborators in the crime, why would they prosecute?

The whole government.

Sounds like the dope sellers filling our prisons are just guilty of thinking too small.

(Madoff and Stanford weren't bailout recipients.)

* I just made the trillion number up... with over $700B in TARP alone, I'm sure the real numbers are much higher. And that doesn't include stimulus money, either.

Not that there is anything wrong with that...


:yoiks:

At this point you can only laugh.

Most people are just chum to the puppetmasters.