Calpers Sues Moody's, S&P, Fitch Over Ratings Of Shoddy Assets

nytimes.com:

SACRAMENTO -- The nation's largest public pension fund has filed suit in California state court in connection with $1 billion in losses that it says were caused by "wildly inaccurate" credit ratings from the three leading ratings agencies.

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Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[Clem2]

ABOUT TIME-- those folks at the ratings agencies SHOULD BE IN JAIL.

[Tyler-Durden]

I LOVE THIS.

[ErnestineBass]

YES! YES! YESSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

The chit is about to hit the fan! Long OVERDUE!

[ErnestineBass]

Hey, Tyler, did you catch this episode of NOW with the two ratings agency whistleblowers?

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/446/transcript.html

Pure dy.na.mite!

[MBAdaycamp]

About time...Wall street traders/br­okers/bank­ers will happily sell trash for cash...so it's up to the rating agencies to provide un-biased info. If they're in the tank...it's game over.

I'm no fan of trial lawyers but in this case...Release the hounds!

MBA Day Camp

[holman2]

I hope every other pension fund, including mine, jump on this bandwagon. I'm not an attorney, but these rating agencies were obviously out and out crooked or criminally negligent.

[PhilipTaylor]

The Banks and Ratings agencies are BOTH FULLY CULPABLE for these CR1MES!

See below as the Banks made the product and the Banks and their REPS marketed them as low risk and sold them to unsuspecting people like your mother or grandmother or to Iceland!

The ratings agencies are simply TOOLS used by the BANKS! The Banks want them to take the FALL to avoid their prosecution!

[PhilipTaylor]

What will happen if we have WE@K Pr0secution of the CR1MINALS!

Look at the S&1 and ENR0N deb@cles when basically except for Ke@ting and Ski11ing nothing was done.

With the only punishment being a slap on the hand nothing will work! The Just!ce Dep@rtment knows this and even wrote papers about it!

[PhilipTaylor]

Who SOLD the FAKE "AAA" Rated products? The Banks and their Representatives around the WORLD!

The Banks arranged the entire thing and sold the HIGH RISK they MANUFACTURED as FAKE "AAA" LOW RISK product so the BANKS are FULLY CULPABLE for this CR1ME!

The Rating agencies were a willing pawn in the game, but the GAME was definitely that of the Banks!

1. What is wrong with writing mortgages that are SURE TO FAIL in two or four years?

2. What is wrong with slicing and combining them into a package called a Derivative that is SURE TO FAIL in two to four years? Adding lots of hidden Fees!

3. What is wrong with selling those as LOW RISK "AAA" Rated Derivatives to the little old lady down the street who thinks "AAA" means the safety of a Treasury Bill and to people (v!ctims) all over the world who think it is nearly 100% safe. What is wrong with representing JU_NK as if it is Low Risk?

4. What is wrong with using A1G Credit Default Swaps to make Massive and Repeated Bets those Derivatives are going to SURELY FAIL in Two to Four Years?

Two Major Laws on the BOOKS have been Broken! Anyone want to guess?

[PhilipTaylor]

For those that do NOT KNOW:

1. Manufactured "Insider Trading" far more premeditated than Chef Martha's for which she served years

2. Misrepresentation of High Risk Products as Low Risk when sold to millions of clients (V1CT1MS)!

Bout are very serious FRAUD Charges with long sentences!

[PhilipTaylor]

Wilbur Ross, one of the super-rich Timmy picked for his PPIP program, in a RARE MOMENT of FULL HONESTY on CNBC last Monday, said,

"This is the largest TRANSFER of DEBT from the PRIVATE Banks to the Government in History and it will take MANY YEARS."

So are they going to gradually weigh down Americans with 50 years of GDP Growth ($700 Trillion) that will take 200 years to work OFF?

Close the Zombie BANKS, FD1C and C0NGRESS!

Wilbur Ross is also implying it is the Greatest transfer of wealth from the American People/Government to Wall Street over MANY YEARS as a corollary!

Thanks Wilbur for the RARE MOMENT of FULL HONESTY from Wall Street!

CNBC has the video interview with Maria unless it has been mysteriously erased by now!

[PhilipTaylor]

If you cannot find it I have on my DVR!

[Tyler-Durden]

hopefully this will go to court and reveal all kinds of accessories to murdering our economy.

[IntelligenceIsBliss]

The ratings agencies have behaved in the same fashion that the big accounting firms did prior to the debacles with enron, etc. They should be crushed mercilessly and left to die. A new regulatory climate needs to be created, one in which the so-called arbiters of the free market are relatively free to do their work, but are operating under the knowledge that if corruption and incompetence interfere with the overall economy, they will be drawn and quartered and fed to the pigs.

[drymartini1]

Just a shakedown by the government and pension funds so that the ratings agencies are threatened to not downgrade a lot of these states.

say CALPERS owns a huge amount of California debt. if ratings of CA gets downgraded, CALPERS takes a huge hit.

its only the ratings agencies that have conflicts of interest. its government and pension agencies too.

[amdezurik]

a decrease in your intake of those martini's might allow you to grasp the situation as it is in reality. maybe

[PhilipTaylor]

SUCH BS!

The Banks and Ratings agencies are BOTH FULLY CULPABLE for these CR1MES!

[rdluu]

Pension funds and all institutional investors always knew that the rating agencies had huge conflicts of interest. If they say they didn't know they are either covering up or incompetent. Even worse the agencies disclosed who was paying them on written prospectuses where the ratings were acknowledged. All of this was ok until the music stopped and the institutions could dump the overvalued securities to unsuspecting moms and pops. Insiders game the system: its known, its tolerated and people make a lot of money perpetuating it. Goldman of course is the best at it and creates the rules both on Wall Street and in DC.

[HST]

Calpers is only doing what the government should be doing.

[mountainweb]

The conflict of interest has been well documented for years but nobody said anything as long as they made money. NOW is the time to call their hand on it and make them pay the bill for the damage that they created.

[peterg76]

This is why the self-correcting free market isn't enough. Fraud on a scale that triggers a depression, and the worst that happens to those responsible is a lawsuit years after the fact.

[jozzie]

Excellent. Now the truth will out!

Moody's is owned in large part by Warren Buffet. Ironically Moody's just downgraded Berkshire Hathaway, but all ratings agencies are still up to their criminal derivatives tricks.

[lvdragonlady]

I am glad to see this kind of action. These companies are NOT regulated and just who gave them the kind of power they have anyway? Too easy to pay the people for a favorable or unfavorable rating to manipulate the value.

[Durango]

Man, I would love to be an attorney working on this case!

While I am sure that it will be a lot of work I am equally certain as to the outcome. After all, their conflict of interest has been well documented.

There should be a big payday coming for the attorneys. And they will deserve every penny of it.

[GetoffMylawn]

Go CALPers.
They have the peoples money, time to get back the ill gotten gains from all those wall street pirates.