Mississippi to receive $33 million from Standard & Poor’s settlement

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Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood speaks at a news conference with U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Stephanie Yonekura, left, Attorney General Eric Holder, second from left, Acting Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery, and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, right, at the Department of Justice on Tuesday in Washington. Standard & Poor's is paying about $1.38 billion to settle government allegations that it knowingly inflated its ratings of risky mortgage investments that helped trigger the financial crisis, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Mississippi will receive $33 million from the settlement. (Kevin Wolf/The Associated Press)
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood speaks at a news conference with U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Stephanie Yonekura, left, Attorney General Eric Holder, second from left, Acting Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery, and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, right, at the Department of Justice on Tuesday in Washington. Standard & Poor's is paying about $1.38 billion to settle government allegations that it knowingly inflated its ratings of risky mortgage investments that helped trigger the financial crisis, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Mississippi will receive $33 million from the settlement. (Kevin Wolf/The Associated Press)
Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood speaks at a news conference with U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Stephanie Yonekura, left, Attorney General Eric Holder, second from left, Acting Assistant Attorney General Stuart Delery, and Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen, right, at the Department of Justice on Tuesday in Washington. Standard & Poor’s is paying about $1.38 billion to settle government allegations that it knowingly inflated its ratings of risky mortgage investments that helped trigger the financial crisis, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. Mississippi will receive $33 million from the settlement. (Kevin Wolf/The Associated Press)

JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — The state of Mississippi will receive $33 million from a national settlement with Standard & Poor’s over allegations that it knowingly inflated its ratings of risky mortgage investments that helped trigger the financial crisis in 2008.

Attorney General Jim Hood says in a news release that Mississippi sued S&P in 2011, joining with Connecticut, the first State to sue in 2010. By 2013, the Justice Department and 17 other states filed similar lawsuits against S&P.

Standard & Poor’s is paying about $1.38 billion in the settlement announced Tuesday over ratings issued from 2004 through 2007.

Hood says the credit rating agencies were just as culpable as the investment banks in causing the financial crisis. Hood says the credit rating agencies held themselves out to be objective and independent.

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