SACRAMENTO Attorney General Kamala Harris announced Tuesday that she, too, has sued Standard & Poor’s for allegedly inflating its ratings of doomed structured finance investments and mortgage-backed securities, piggy-backing on federal litigation challenging the company’s questionable analyses.
The AG’s complaint, filed in San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday morning, alleges violations of California’s unfair competition laws and the False Claims Act, which could put the ratings agency on the hook for triple damages. The lawsuit claims pension funds for state employees and teachers lost $1 billion after relying on Standard & Poor’s rosy investment ratings between 2004 and 2007.
