On February 11, 2008, Judge Colleen Kotelly of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia appointed the Lerach, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins law firm as lead plaintiffs’ counsel in a securities class action arising out of Standard & Poor’s allegedly fraudulent rating of certain bonds collateralized by subprime mortgages.  The action was filed on August 27, 2007 against the chief financial officer of McGraw-Hill, Inc. (McGraw-Hill’s financial division operates under the Standard & Poor’s brand).  Plaintiffs allege that the defendant failed to disclose that Standard & Poor’s was assigning artificially inflated ratings to certain subprime mortgage bonds.  It is further alleged that, when the European Union began investigating whether Standard & Poor’s and other credit agencies were “slow to react” to subprime mortgage loan defaults, McGraw-Hill’s stock plummeted.  Plaintiffs bring causes of action for breach of fiduciary duty, and violations of section 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.  (Click here to view a copy of plaintiffs’ initial complaint.)

The amended complaint in this action is due April 16, 2008.