S&P Accuses Government Of Retaliation, Asks For Documents

Standard & Poor claims that the government prosecuted the company for fraud in retaliation for downgrading US government debt in a recent legal filing, reports Edvard Pettersson at Bloomberg Businessweek. The court statement alleges that then-US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned McGraw Hill Financial Inc (NYSE:MHFI) that there would be some sort of blowback if the ratings agency went ahead with the downgrade (McGraw Hill owns S&P).

McGraw Hill Financial Inc (NYSE:MHFI) says the conversation took place on August 8, 2011, shortly before it downgraded US debt from AAA, the highest possible grade, to AA+, and that Geithner specifically...