D&B sued for negligence on company report

The plaintiff went to invest $50,000 in a company Agape World Inc.  Before the plaintiff did so he obtained a Dun & Bradstreet report on the company and the report which provides a numerical score for both how likely the company is to pay its bills over the next 12 months and how much financial stress the company will experience over the same time frame.  The D&B report gave the company relatively high marks on both accounts and the plaintiff went ahead and invested in the company.  Four months later it was revealed that the Agape was actual a “Ponzi scheme” and insolvent. 

I don’t think D&B reports are that great in part because they rely heavily on a company self reporting.  If a company like Agape is acting fraudently, they aren’t going to report their true financial standing to D&B.  The question to me is whether D&B acted any more negligently in rating Agape than it did in rating all the other companies that it rates.  My guess is that it didn’t.

The lawsuit was filed in New York state court.

Complaint courtesy Courthousenews

Tags: Agape World, company ratings, Dunn & Bradstreet, Lawsuit, Linkedin