Calif. AG sues Standard & Poor's
Calif. AG sues debt rating agency Standard & Poor's, claims it cost state, investors billions
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California's attorney general has filed a lawsuit against debt rating agency Standard & Poor's, claiming it inflated its ratings of certain investments, costing the state's public pension funds and other investors billions of dollars.
Attorney General Kamala Harris filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in San Francisco Superior Court.
It comes a day after the federal government filed a complaint against Standard & Poor's, accusing the company of fraud for giving high ratings to risky mortgage bonds that helped bring about the financial crisis.
It was the first enforcement action the federal government has taken against a major rating agency related to the financial crisis.
S&P, a unit of New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos., has denied wrongdoing in that case.
