McGraw Hill Financial Inc.’s Standard & Poor’s unit, Moody’s Corp. and Fitch Group Inc. were sued by the liquidators of two Bear Stearns hedge funds, who accused them of issuing ratings they knew were bogus, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Geoffrey Varga and Mark Longbottom, the liquidators of the two defunct funds, filed a summons and notice in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan in July indicating their intention to sue the companies over their ratings. The liquidators filed a complaint today giving details of their claims. In their lawsuit, which seeks damages in connection with more than $1 billion in losses, the liquidators include communications that they say show the companies knew their ratings were faulty. The allegations are without merit and Standard & Poor’s will fight them, said Ed Sweeney, a spokesman for the New York-based company.
