Articles by Jonathan Stempel and Luciana Lopez

S&P Wins Transfer of Ratings Lawsuits by States to Federal Court in New York

Standard & Poor’s and its parent company McGraw Hill Financial Inc. on Thursday won a ruling that moves 15 lawsuits in which they were accused of fraudulently inflating credit ratings to a single federal court. The U.S. Judicial Panel on …

AIG Ends a Bailout-Related Lawsuit Against N.Y. Federal Reserve

American International Group Inc. has agreed to end litigation against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York over whether the insurer retained the right after its 2008 taxpayer-funded bailout to sue over losses on residential mortgage-backed securities. In a May …

S&P Cuts Rating on Buffett’s Berkshire Holding Company But Not Insurance Units

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. had its credit rating cut one notch by Standard & Poor’s, which cited a new methodology for evaluating insurers and Berkshire’s dependence on its insurance business for dividend income. The rating was cut to “AA” …

AIG May Pursue Fraud Case vs. BofA over Countrywide

American International Group Inc. may pursue a lawsuit accusing Bank of America Corp.’s Countrywide unit of causing billions of dollars of losses by fraudulently inducing it to buy risky residential mortgage-backed securities. U.S. District Judge Mariana Pfaelzer in Los Angeles …

Moody’s, S&P Settle Negligence Lawsuits Over Debt Vehicle Ratings

Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s on Friday said they have settled two long-running lawsuits seeking to hold them responsible for misleading investors about the safety of risky debt vehicles that they had rated. The lawsuits had accused Moody’s, …

Federal Judge Moves S&P Ratings Case Back to State Court

A federal judge handed a legal defeat to Standard & Poor’s, ruling that a lawsuit in which Connecticut accused it of fraudulently inflating credit ratings to win business should be moved back to the state court where it began. In …

Google Again Beats Viacom in YouTube Copyright Case

A federal judge has thrown out Viacom Inc.’s lawsuit accusing Google Inc. of posting its programs on YouTube without permission, a year after a federal appeals court had revived the landmark copyright infringement case. For the second time in three …

Mortgage Lender Charged with Defrauding Government Insurer

The United States last Thursday sued a New York mortgage company it said defrauded the federal government into insuring poor quality home loans, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. In a civil lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court, the U.S. Department …

Capitol Records Copyright Win Deals Blow to Digital Goods Resellers

In a major lawsuit testing the legitimacy of music downloads, Capitol Records LLC has won a court ruling that the start-up ReDigi Inc. has infringed its music copyrights. U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan said ReDigi was not authorized …

Gulf Oil Spill Claims Czar Seeks Dismissal of BP Suit

The administrator of BP Plc’s settlement with thousands of people and businesses who sued over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill urged a federal judge on Monday to end the company’s lawsuit over how he determines damages claims. BP …