Tag Archive | "Moody’s"

Rating Agency Scandal: SEC Chooses Remedial Over Preventative


Wall Street USDAExtra, Extra! Read all about it: SEC Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami told the Senate Judiciary Committee the SEC is “looking very closely at credit rating agencies” — Moody’s Investors Service (MCO), Standard & Poor’s (MHP) and Fitch Ratings — and is “focused on that area” for their role in the global derivatives scam.

Seriously? Do we live under the rule of law in a capitalist economy? If so, companies need incentives to avoid running scams before they run them. Otherwise, the cost-benefit analysis will continue to look like this:

1) Make mega-billions running a “legal” scam which will later come under scrutiny.

2) Pay millions in fines.

3) Replace executives who walk away after collecting huge salaries, bonuses, and dismissal packages.

4) Time passes, all is forgotten.

5) Repeat Step #1.

I wonder how many more years the SEC will “look at” the ratings agencies before they nail them for putting USDA Grade A stickers on rotting horse shit. Maybe the SEC should do some soul-searching and ask why they allow private for-profit companies (with tons of conflicts of interests) to act as an oversight committee for financial products. Is that not the role of a governor? It’s as laughable as renaming “bribery” the socially acceptable term “lobbying.”

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Posted in Featured, The Scoop, Washington & Wall St.Comments (1)

Intel, IBM, Akamai, Polycom, McKinsey and Moody’s Helped Hedge Fund Galleon Insider Trade


MarketWatch reported: “Galleon Group’s billionaire founder, Raj Rajaratnam, was charged Friday in a sweeping insider-trading case, according to court documents filed in Manhattan by federal prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Unlike Martha Stewart’s insider trading, this scheme better exposes the vast network of cheaters who report to hedge funds for Don Corleone type rewards: “The charges against Galleon claim the firm was connected to a network of informants — including executives and employees at Intel (Nasdaq: INTC), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Akamai (Nasdaq: AKAM), Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM), McKinsey and rating agency Moody’s Corp.(NYSE: MCO) — who exchanged inside information.” (MarketWatch)

Surprised? If so, you are radically disconnected from Wall Street. However, given how toothless and weak the SEC has become in the last decade, punishing insider trading has become as rare as bipartisanship in Washington.

Too bad Rajaratnam wasn’t a politician. In that case his behavior would have been completely legal.

Post Ad CleanWant to read more Scoops you won’t see in the mainstream media? Try these posts:

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Stocks
IMB
INTC
AKAM
MCO

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Posted in Economy, Featured, The ScoopComments (4)


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