In just six months, Standard & Poor’s AAA blessing for a slice of a $1.5 billion collateralized debt obligation cost Citigroup Inc. its $15 million investment.
The Vertical ABS 2007-1, a mezzanine cash flow structure built with asset-backed securities underwritten by UBS AG, is one of dozens of deals listed in the Justice Department’s Feb. 4 lawsuit against S&P and its parent McGraw-Hill Cos. that received the ratings firm’s highest AAA grade. Internal UBS emails referred to CDOs "as ‘crap’ at the same time that the bank was selling them," Senator Carl Levin said in an April 2010 subcommittee hearing on the causes and consequences of the financial crisis.
