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A law firm hired to investigate the most recent claims by an ex-Moody's analyst that the company continues to inflate its ratings has preliminarily concluded those allegations are unfounded, a top Moody's executive told a U.S. House panel Wednesday.

Richard Cantor, the chief credit officer at Moody's Investors Service, told the U.S. House Oversight Committee that Moody's hired the law firm Kramer Levin to investigate former employee Eric Kolchinsky's complaints about the ratings firm, a unit of Moody's Corp. (MCO).

Its preliminary findings, Cantor said, "are consistent with Moody's internal review - that the claims of misconduct are unsupported." He added that the issues Kolchinsky raised are "of longstanding and healthy debate" within Moody's.

Kolchinksy was suspended on Sept. 3 after he declined a request from a Moody's human-resources officer to meet with an external lawyer. He said in an interview earlier this month that he had spoken to the lawyer on the phone a few days earlier but declined the face-to-face meeting because he wanted his own attorney to be present and was notified of the Sept. 3 meeting only minutes in advance.

Cantor added that the law firm hired was given "unfettered access" to Moody's records.

"Moody's didn't direct the investigation," he said, adding that the law firm interviewed 22 Moody's employees. "The only person who refused to meet" with the law firm was Kolchinsky, he said.

House Oversight Chairman Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., told Cantor he wants Moody's to turn over all the documents from the law firm's investigation. Cantor responded that he will pass along the request to Moody's lawyers and he is "confident they will be able to comply."

Kolchinksky and a former Moody's compliance officer, Scott McCleskey, testified the U.S. House Oversight Committee Wednesday about what they believe are continuing failures at Moody's in how it conducts and monitors its ratings.

McCleskey's testimony centered around issues he raised to the SEC in March about how Moody's replaced several compliance officers in 2008 with analysts and managers who were previously involved in rating structured-finance and mortgage securities. He said he was "pushed out" by Moody's in September last year after being replaced.

Kolchinsky, meanwhile, discussed what he believes are continuing problems with conflicts of interest and inflated ratings.

- By Sarah N. Lynch, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6634; sarah.lynch@dowjones.com

(Serena Ng contributed to this article.)