The executive at Standard & Poor's was clear: "This market is a wildly spinning top which is going to end badly." That sober assessment of certain mortgage-related investments, was delivered to colleagues in a confidential memo in December 2006. It appears investors were misled.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100437479"If the facts prove out, it certainly seems like Standard & Poor's intentionally cooked its models in order to make the ratings higher than they otherwise thought they should be, in violation of the firm's own policies and standards," said Neil Barofsky, a former federal prosecutor who served as the special inspector general for the United States Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program from 2008 to 2011.