We have suggested that there could be some government investigations into the timing and substance of Standard & Poor's downgrade of Treasury debt, which rocked the market recently. I still think this will materialize. But I certainly did not have insider trading on my mind.

In any case, the SEC has apparently asked the credit rating firm for list of people who had inside knowledge of the decision to downgrade the United States ahead of its release. According to the Financial Times, The SEC's examination staff--not the enforcement staff--is taking a look at this, though it's unclear what prompted the move.  

You would think the SEC would not take this step unless they had some reason to believe that foul play might have been an issue. But the FT's source indicates the SEC does not have evidence of an "aberrational" trade or any specific wrongdoing. So the provenance of this is intriguing. Some might wildly assume that this is part of some campaign to punish the firm for what some saw as poor behavior. But that too would be an untoward stretch of the imagination. There's a lot more going on here than meets the eye.

For more:
- here's the article

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