Credit rating firm Egan-Jones and its president Sean Egan agreed to be barred for 18 months from giving officially recognized ratings on asset-backed or government securities to resolve charges they lied on registration forms, U.S. regulators said on Tuesday. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the firm and Egan misrepresented its operations, were sloppy in compliance, violated conflict-of-interest provisions and it ordered them to pay a fine of $30,000. "Accuracy and transparency in the registration process are essential to the Commission's oversight of credit rating agencies," SEC enforcement director Robert Khuzami said in a statement. Specifically, Egan-Jones said in a 2008 application to gain additional certification as a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) for asset-backed and government securities, that it had been rating these types of issuers since 1995. Sean Egan signed off on the application knowing, or should have
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