Moody's Withdraws Oyster Bay, N.Y. Rating

New York's fourth largest township lost its Moody's Investors Service rating due to a lack of audited financial statements.

Moody's on Tuesday withdrew its rating of the Town of Oyster Bay and two other New York issuers: the town of Clarkson and the Elmwood Park Fire District. They were among eight issuers Moody's placed on review for not providing updated financials on Dec. 28.

"Moody's has withdrawn these ratings because it believes it has insufficient or otherwise inadequate information to support the maintenance of the ratings," the ratings agency said in a statement.

Oyster Bay is in Long Island's Nassau County and had a population of 293,214 in the 2010 Census. A Sept. 15 Moody's report said Oyster Bay's A3 credit rating could be impacted by a federal investigation into $20 million in loan guarantees made by the town to restaurateur Harendra Singh. A former Oyster Bay official was named as a co-conspirator by the FBI.

Moody's downgraded Oyster Bay's general obligation bond rating to A3 from A2 in August 2014 citing a negative reserve position from years of imbalanced budgets. Standard & Poor's slashed Oyster Bay in 2014 two notches to BBB from A-minus.

"The Town does not anticipate any adverse effects regarding future borrowing as a result of this withdrawal," Finance Director Rob Darienzo said in a statement. "The cause of this withdrawal is not the Town's current financial position, rather it is the result of unforeseen delays in reporting due to the Town's modernization of its accounting software."

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