New York-based Standard & Poor's is being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice. The rating agency awarded top ratings to troubled mortgage securities which misled investors and inflated the market sparking the financial crisis in 2008. Standard & Poor’s used to assert that the authorities were launching a series of investigations and bringing an action against it in revenge for downgrading the U.S. sovereign credit rating in summer 2011. So, the rating agency insisted on the biased attitude from Washington in an attempt to persuade the community of unfair prosecution. However, currently Standard & Poor's is engaged in the talks with the Justice Department with a view to devising a solution.
As a result, Standard & Poor’s Financial Services has agreed to pay almost $1.4 billion to settle allegations. For its part, S&P does not admit to criminal wrongdoing in the settlement.
