HOW THE HELL DID I MISS THIS?

The DOJ is FINALLY doing something about the frauds at S&P. 

U.S. sues S&P over subprime ratings
By James O'Toole and Chris Isidore
February 6, 2013: 7:59 AM ET

The Justice Department announced a lawsuit Tuesday against Standard & Poor's over its inaccurate ratings of investments tied to subprime mortgages in the run-up to the financial crisis.

The Justice Department accuses S&P of giving deceptive ratings to mortgage securities between 2004 and 2007 that greatly underestimated the risk to investors. It did so, according to the suit, in order to collect fees from the firms that were pooling the risky home loans into securities.

Government officials say they've identified more than $5 billion in losses from collateralized debt obligations -- mortgage-related investments typically referred to as CDOs -- rated by S&P between March and October of 2007.

"During this period, nearly every single mortgage-backed CDO that was rated by S&P not only underperformed -- but failed," Attorney General Eric Holder said. "Put simply, this alleged conduct is egregious -- and it goes to the very heart of the recent financial crisis."

The S&P a few days ago decided that a talk radio logic is it's best defense:

S&P Accuses U.S. Of Suing To Retaliate For Credit Downgrade

by Eyder Peralta
September 04, 2013 2:32 PM
NPR

"S&P has previously indicated that it believes the U.S. lawsuit was politically motivated, but the language in Tuesday's court filing is its strongest to date.

"The Justice Department 'commenced this action in retaliation for [S&P's] exercise of their free speech rights with respect to the creditworthiness of the United States of America,' lawyers for S&P wrote in court documents filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California."

UPDATE: I forgot that I had a post about this on 2/4/2013.