Standard & Poor's practices for rating commercial property bonds since the 2008 credit crisis are under scrutiny by Massachusetts authorities, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The scope of the probe by state Attorney General Martha Coakley extends beyond the securities and period that are the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department against New York-based McGraw-Hill Cos. and its S&P unit. Coakley is looking into whether the world's biggest credit-rating company lowered its standards to win business grading commercial property bonds as the market recovered from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The U.S. Justice Department's case focuses on deals from September 2004 to October 2007, accusing S&P and its parent of inflating ratings on bonds backed by home loans made to the riskiest borrowers, according to the complaint filed Feb. 4 in federal district court. The U.S. seeks $5 billion in damages, equivalent to more than five years of earnings at McGraw-Hill.
