Eric Kolchinsky: Moody’s Whistle-Blower
September 23rd, 2009Via: Reuters:
Senior managers at Moody’s Corp still favor revenue over ratings quality and are willing to dismiss or silence employees who disagree with them, according to a recently suspended Moody’s managing director.
In written testimony obtained by Reuters for a U.S. congressional hearing on Thursday, Eric Kolchinsky said the firm’s credit policy group is weak and short staffed, and its analysts are “bullied” by managers who override their decisions to generate revenue.
Kolchinsky said he was suspended by Moody’s because of a warning he sent the New York-based company’s compliance group about what he believed to be a securities violation.
In a statement, Moody’s said it “takes seriously all allegations of potential impropriety” and has a strict non-retaliation policy for employees who raise complaints.
Congress and regulators are cracking down on the ratings industry, blamed for exacerbating the financial crisis by assigning top ratings to mortgage-linked securities that later crumbled as home prices fell.
Kolchinsky said Moody’s methodologies for rating complex products are inadequate and do not realistically reflect the risk of the underlying securities.
Moody’s shares slid 8.4 percent on Wednesday, closing down $1.87 at $20.49. In contrast, shares of McGraw-Hill Cos, which owns Moody’s main rival Standard & Poor’s, fell just 1.7 percent.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc is Moody’s largest shareholder, but has been reducing its stake over the last couple of months.
CONCERNS RAISED LONG AGO
Kolchinsky first raised concerns about the methodology for rating complex structured debt in 2007, according to a source familiar with the events and a memo Kolchinsky sent to Moody’s chief compliance officer.
Moody’s changed its methodology for rating collateralized loan obligations late in 2008, but nevertheless continued to affirm investment-grade ratings it knew would later be downgraded deep into “junk” status under the new methodology, said the source familiar with the memo.
As a result, Kolchinsky said Moody’s assigned some ratings that did not reflect all the information it had, the source said.
Kolchinsky also accused Moody’s of knowingly issuing a rating that was wrong, said the source.
He sent a 14-page memo to Moody’s chief compliance officer in 2009 about the particular methodology and rating but felt that his concerns were not taken seriously.
That memo has been submitted to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee where Kolchinsky will be testifying on Thursday, the source said.
In its statement, Moody’s said Kolchinsky had for more than a year made a series of allegations of misconduct within the company. “In each case the company found that the claims were unsupported,” it said.
I “love” how peoples who have something in their job description – e.g. are paid to point out errors in their corporate methods, means, and motives are treated as of, well forever.
Shit on me because you pay me to tell you (because its my job) to tell you what you are doing wrong.
That’s beautiful isn’t it?
And now you call me- a whistleblower (a curse on the career- sort of) because why?
Uh haven’t you been paying me all along to do this job, and now I suck cause you don’t like what I’m saying?
Being a Monday Morning Quarterback (which is my career) really sucks at times. I’m not doing anything productive, but am mostly doing deconstruction.
Lately, well as of about 3:00 p.m. EST when I read this in the U.S.
http://www.gao.gov/highlights/d09468high.pdf
I started thinking, well then.
Its about fucking time that those of us who are paid to do our jobs monitoring can only do well by ourselves when we step up to the plate and do it right.
Call me a whistleblower. Say it loud. I’m one and I’m proud.
Stop killing people for speaking truth to power.
I need to say something else here.
Sorry if I’m obtuse most of the time.
What this means to me re the DCAA?
They have been auditing Haliburton since Clinton and the wars in Croatia/Serbia.
The DCAA found that Haliburton charged thousands of dollars to US taxpayers for a sheet of plywood.
All findings OVERTURNED.
All that shit that Haliburton charged to U.S. on their contract?
Unallowable costs?
OVERTURNED.
Question – who in the Fed is churning the audit results? Somebody is, there has got to be a document. And woe to you bozo, that lets this shit keep going down.
Have you ever heard of the word jail, prison, and or, do you know whether the state you live in considers it a crime as a fiscal officer as to whether you head should or not be cut off and put on a pike for all to view?
Because the DCAA is evidently NOT independent of their masters – whatever their auditors find – went into the trash can. NOT A FINDING.
Great for Morale. Yuh right.
The DCAA is begging for auditors on the USAJOBS website.
Go figure why they aren’t filled up with applicants.
Yaaaaaawn. So f**king what, says he.
Having recently visited the Sun King’s grand monstrosity on the outskirts of Paris, I must now compare the Wurlitzer to Louis’ magnificent Hall of Mirrors, as all these “important” revelations in the western press swirl about in a confusing media sea slowly choking on the sea of plastic refuse accumulating around the slowly-rotating gyre at the center we’re not supposed to notice.
Now THAT’s a mixed metaphor!
But the question stands: if the system is lying, who’s really to blame?