A major perpetrator of fraud in the run up to the financial crisis admitted to misleading investors on Tuesday, but won’t face any further prosecution according to a settlement deal with the Department of Justice.
Standard & Poor’s Financial Services, or S&P, agreed to pay roughly $1.4 billion in fines stemming from the company’s role in inflating the credit ratings of billion of dollars of junk investments. Those financial vehicles included mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations, which helped to inflate the real estate bubble that eventually popped in spectacular fashion in the summer of 2008.
“The settlement we have reached today not only makes clear that this kind of conduct will never be tolerated by the Department of Justice, it also underscores our strong and ongoing commitment to pursue any company or entity that violated the law and contributed to the financial crisis of 2008.” said Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement on Tuesday.
While the fine is the largest ever that will be paid by a credit ratings agency, it confirms Attorney General Eric Holder’s legacy as a prosecutor reluctant to seek prison sentences for Wall Street’s most notorious criminals.
Advocacy groups like Public Citizen are rejecting the settlement as just the latest example that certain financial institutions are “too big to jail,” a proclamation the Attorney General himself once made in testimony to Congress.
“Today, S&P settles without even an admission that it violated the law, and with no prospect of subsequent criminal prosecution,” said Public Citizen’s president Robert Weissmann.
“The Wall Street escape from accountability virtually ensures a repeat of the widespread wrongdoing leading up to the financial crash,” he added.
“Millions of Americans lost their homes, jobs and retirement savings because of the frauds of credit rating agencies,” the group’s financial policy advocate, Bartlett Naylor, said in a statement, “Yet the DOJ’s treatment of Wall Street remains a broken record in every way. Despite asserting a large-scale fraud, the DOJ settlement means no individual is going to jail. S&P remains in business. Taxpayers will subsidize the penalty.”
As part of the settlement, S&P agreed to comply with a number of consumer protection statutes, as well as a “statement of facts” describing its wrongdoing in the run up to the financial crash. The admissions include an acknowledgment that fees it collected contributed to the ratings that were ultimately given. The agency also admitted, “that many of the securities that S&P rated highly were based on packages of mortgages that relevant people within the company knew were likely to default.”
The settlement is a culmination of Department of Justice lawsuit launched in 2013 in coordination with 19 other states and Washington, DC.
Although this is likely Eric Holder’s last major financial settlement as Attorney General, his likely predecessor will face similar doubts about the department’s willingness to hold Wall Street accountable.
Loretta Lynch, the US Attorney tapped by President Obama to replace Holder faced off with Senators during her confirmation hearing last week. As The Sentinel reported at the time, Lynch may feel pressure to prosecute Wall Street giant HSBC if confirmed.
In 2012 she deferred prosecution and signed on to a hefty settlement deal with the bank, similar to the one agreed to today with S&P, in return for the bank executing a number of internal reforms.
However, subsequent reports indicate the bank has failed to comply with the settlement, raising the specter that further action by Justice Department could be taken, if it decides to go that route.
