IPFS News Link • Corruption
EXCLUSIVE: Former Moody's Insider Says "Moody's Should Be Liquidated"
• The Business InsiderThe next blow is expected to come Thursday, when former Moody's managing director turned whistleblower Eric Kolchinsky is scheduled to testify before Congress.
Kolchinsky worked for Moody's for eight years and eventually oversaw the group responsible for rating securities known as collateralized debt obligations (CDO).
Today, Kolchinsky feels "some moral responsibility for the poor CDO ratings" issued under his watch, The Wall Street Journal reports. "I was part of the process that did all this damage, and I feel I should try to do something now to make sure it doesn't happen again."
Perhaps the most damning part of Kolchinsky's critique, as detailed by The Journal, is that Moody's was still employing the same faulty rating process in early 2009, despite the implosion of CDOs and other mortgage-related securities in 2007-2008. "Moody's issued an opinion which was known to be wrong," Kolchinsky wrote to the firm's chief compliance officer in July about a rating issued in January 2009, The Journal reports. (Meanwhile, another former Moody's exec tells The Business Insider that Kolchinsky is right and Moody's should be "liquidated right now.")