Honesty, from Moody's!

When sued for their clearly retarded ratings practices (giving toxic crap securities a AAA rating), Moody's actually told the truth. Well, they tried to use the truth as a defense, and the judge threw it out.

“Generalizations regarding integrity, independence and risk management amount to no more than puffery,” Moody’s said in court papers. As such, alleged “misstatements of this nature are insufficient to sustain a claim under the securities laws.”

If you use the term "puffery" as a normal person, their defense was spot on. However, they're using it to try dodging responsibility for their basically fraudulent ratings business. The judge wasn't having it.

Read more at Bloomberg.