AFP/Getty ImagesJustice Department officials reportedly have quietly met with former Moody’s executives.The U.S. Justice Department is investigating Moody’s Investors Service for issuing favorable grades on mortgage deals in the buildup to the financial crisis, according to people familiar with the situation. The probe comes as the Justice Department is nearing a settlement with Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services over similar actions. Justice Department officials, in recent months, have quietly met with multiple former Moody’s executives to discuss ratings of complex securities before the crisis, the people said. The Justice Department attorneys scrutinizing Moody’s are still in the early stages of their investigation, the people said, and it isn’t yet clear whether the probe will result in a lawsuit. A Moody’s spokesman declined to comment. In the recent wave of meetings, Justice Department officials, citing internal company emails, have pressed former Moody’s executives on whether the firm compromised standards to win business, according to people familiar with the matter. The main focus, as with the S&P case, has been on residential-mortgage deals from around 2004 to 2007, the people said. An expanded version of this report is available at WSJ.com