Italian police have raided the offices of Standard & Poor's and Moody's over their perceived role in escalating the Italian debt crisis.
In a bizarre move on Wednesday, police took documents from the Milan offices of the two rating agencies with prosecutors saying they were checking whether the CRAs "respect regulations" when carrying out their work.
Prosecutors in Trani - a small port town - first began investigating Moody's in May 2010 after receiving complaints from two consumer bodies about one of its rating reports which said that Italy's banks were at risk from the Greek crisis.
Standard & Poor's is being investigated because it threatened to downgrade Italy's credit rating due to its huge public debt in May this year.
Remember when Moodys fired within when warnings were made "on ratings of mortgage based investments and actively promoted those who helped create the second largest economic crisis in American history after the great depression". [ SOURCE James Pilant ]
Thanks, FRiend.