jct74
01-21-2014, 11:36 AM
Treasury chief Geithner sought revenge on S&P: McGraw
By Post Staff Report
January 21, 2014 | 9:42am
That’s the message McGraw Hill Chairman Terry McGraw learned in 2011 after his company — Standard & Poor’s — downgraded the U.S.’s 60-year-running AAA credit rating to AA+ with a negative outlook, Bloomberg reported.
McGraw, in a federal court filing in Santa Ana, California on Monday, declared that then Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner called him on Aug. 8, 2011, after S&P was the only credit ratings company to downgrade the US debt. Geithner, McGraw said, told him that S&P would be held accountable for the downgrade.
“S&P’s conduct would be looked at very carefully,” Geithner told McGraw according to the court filing. “Such behavior would not occur, he said, without a response from the government.”
The government alleged in its Feb. 4, 2013, complaint that S&P knowingly downplayed the risk on securities before the credit crisis to win business from investment banks seeking the highest possible ratings to help sell the instruments.
The Justice Department accused S&P of lying about its ratings being free of conflicts of interest and may seek as much as $5 billion in civil penalties.
No other large ratings agencies were charged at that time.
...
read more:
http://nypost.com/2014/01/21/treasury-chief-geithner-sought-revenge-on-sp-mcgraw/
By Post Staff Report
January 21, 2014 | 9:42am
That’s the message McGraw Hill Chairman Terry McGraw learned in 2011 after his company — Standard & Poor’s — downgraded the U.S.’s 60-year-running AAA credit rating to AA+ with a negative outlook, Bloomberg reported.
McGraw, in a federal court filing in Santa Ana, California on Monday, declared that then Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner called him on Aug. 8, 2011, after S&P was the only credit ratings company to downgrade the US debt. Geithner, McGraw said, told him that S&P would be held accountable for the downgrade.
“S&P’s conduct would be looked at very carefully,” Geithner told McGraw according to the court filing. “Such behavior would not occur, he said, without a response from the government.”
The government alleged in its Feb. 4, 2013, complaint that S&P knowingly downplayed the risk on securities before the credit crisis to win business from investment banks seeking the highest possible ratings to help sell the instruments.
The Justice Department accused S&P of lying about its ratings being free of conflicts of interest and may seek as much as $5 billion in civil penalties.
No other large ratings agencies were charged at that time.
...
read more:
http://nypost.com/2014/01/21/treasury-chief-geithner-sought-revenge-on-sp-mcgraw/