\t\t\t\tAccording to a letter written by prosecutors to Moody\u2019s (MCO), the U.S. Department of Justice intends to sue the credit rating agency and its Moody\u2019s Investors Services unit over valuations that the latter assigned to mortgage-backed securities leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. The MBS fraud case is expected to make claims about the way the agency rated collateralized debt obligations and residential mortgage-backed securities, as well as allege violations of the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act as it pertains to rating RMBSs and CDOs.\u00a0Moody\u2019s disclosed the expected case in an update that also included third quarter earning results.<\/p>\n
Aside from the DOJ case, several\u00a0states\u2019 Attorney Generals\u00a0are expected to pursue their own claims against Moody’s, except that their cases would be brought under state law.<\/p>\n
A number of ratings companies have come under fire over their alleged failure to provide accurate warnings about the risks involved in investing in MBSs and CDOs leading up to the economic crisis. In 2013, the DOJ sued Standard & Poor\u2019s over similar allegations, along with the claim that the agency misled investors for its own profit while misrepresenting the actual risks involved in the securities. Last year, S & P settled with the DOJ, the District of Columbia, and 19 states for almost $1.4B. The government and the states took issue with the way S & P rated the CDOs and RMBSs that it issued from \u201904 to \u201907.<\/p>\n