S&P Claims US Fraud Case Is Punishment, Seeks Conversation Records

Standard & Poor’s, the only ratings agency charged by the US government with fraud over its ratings of mortgage-backed securities that ultimately imploded the economy in 2008, is seeking records of conversations that took place between then Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and President Barack Obama to bolster claims that the government is punishing S&P for its historic downgrade of US government debt in 2011. In the spring of 2011, those closely watching the US debt crisis, hedge fund managers among them, had their eyes keenly focused on negotiations between Republicans and Democrats to determine the potential for a political compromise…