GOP Rep. Darrell Issa Initiates Investigation Into SEC's Goldman Suit

Congressman Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Oversight Committee, is initiating an investigation into the timing of the Security and Exchange Commission's fraud suit against Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs.

"The events of the past five days have fueled legitimate suspicion on the part of the American people that the Commission has attempted to assist the White House, the Democratic Party, and Congressional Democrats by timing this suit to coincide with the Senate's consideration of financial regulatory legislation," Issa says.

Issa's staff tells CBS News that they currently have no hard evidence that the SEC violated federal law by colluding with the White House. But they argue the timeline and the circumstances are fishy, and they point to two things in particular: the announcement of the fraud suit the week before Democrats planned to bring their financial reform bill to the Senate floor, and the amazing speed with which Organizing for America managed to purchase a Google ad directing people who typed "Goldman Sachs SEC" on Google to donate money at my.barackobama.com once the news broke on the New York Times website.

Issa's office is not going so far as to make an accusation of impropriety at this point. But they are requesting a raft of documents from the SEC - including "all known communications" between SEC employees and the Executive Office of the President, the Democratic National Committee, the DNC group Organizing for America, or the New York Times. They say if they don't get the documents they want from the SEC, there are "many avenues to pursue," including subpoenas.

This morning, CBS News caught up with SEC Chairman Mary Shapiro as she was departing a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy. We asked her if there was any political pressure put on the SEC to bring this suit against Goldman Sachs.

I don’t think so, because:

a) Goldman’s response was so silly that it showed that they hadn’t had time to formulate a better one,

b) there isn’t any way that if word had come down that the SEC was going to slap this on Goldman on Friday that it would not have been reflected in stock or options movement. The move is so big, and Goldman’s shares are so liquid, that *someone* would have used this for their profit.

c) Goldman would have retained (quietly) the sort of lawyers they’re now retaining prior to Friday.

I don’t see any evidence at this time that Goldman was given a heads-up on this. And, more to the point, the SEC could have been nice (if they wanted to be) and delivered these charges on a Monday through Thursday, which would have been more to Goldman’s advantage. Instead, they delivered them cold-turkey on a Friday - disrupting weekend plans for Goldman execs - a nice little touch on a personal level.

While this might have started as a charade by the administration, the follow-on legal complaints that are now starting to flow in against Goldman (especially from Europe) are not dog-n-pony shows. They’re the real deal.

The GOP needs a different tune on this stuff, because they’re looking stupid. Issa’s complaint doubly so. The GOP should have been working up their own financial legislation without bail-outs and backstops, but instead they chose the current course of stupidity.

It's not just Obama's regime. GS "former" employees can be found all over the place, in various state banks, the World Bank, you name it.

EXCERPT William Cohan book, "Does Goldman Sachs Really Rule the World?" The logic of the conspiracy theorists in this regard is, of course, impeccable: Goldman alumnus Josh Bolten ran the Bush White House, while his former Goldman boss, Hank Paulson, ran the Treasury. They both speak regularly to former Clinton Treasury Secy Bob Rubin who ran Goldman before Paulson (Rubin was an Obama advisor and was later ousted from Citigroup ); Rubin keeps Paulson and Bolton dangling like puppets on a string.

They all supposedly touch base with the heads of the Italian and Canadian central banks—both Goldman alumni—and with ex-Goldman Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank.

Paulson is now getting his advice on how to handle the crisis from Ken Wilson, recently retired Goldman partner and financial-institutions M&A banker, who Paulson just recruited to Washington to help him out. Already at Treasury were Goldman alumni Dan Jester, Anthony Ryan, David Nason and Bob Hoyt, the department's general counsel.

And—--the conspiracy crowd can't help but point out—Neel Kashkari, 35, a former Goldman VP who Paulson recruited as his Assistant Secretary of international affairs in 2006, has just been appointed—by-Paulson—to run, on an interim basis, the $700 billion TARP bailout fund." END EXCERPT

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The BIG question is----how much did Gangster Government pocket for blanketing Wall Street with billions and billions of tax dollars with virtually no accountability. We may never know if Paulson and Kashkari bailed out their friends and cronies but I'll betcha wire transfers offshore musta been going 24/7.

The $700B TARP Bailout is now being called, "A MASTERFUL DECEIT." Paulson, et al, may not have pulled a fast one when he testified in favor of the TARP before Congress----but Congress' phony outrage is a puzzlement. If HR 1424 was a 'MASTERFUL DECEIT' then CONGRESS didn't do its job.

TITLE I—TROUBLED ASSETS RELIEF PROGRAM (required 'Congressional Oversight' sections listed)
Sec. 101. Purchases of troubled assets.
Sec. 102. Insurance of troubled assets.
Sec. 103. Considerations.
Sec. 104. Financial Stability Oversight Board.
Sec. 105. Reports.
Sec. 107. Contracting procedures.
Sec. 108. Conflicts of interest.
Sec. 111. Executive compensation and corporate governance.
Sec. 116. Oversight and audits.
Sec. 118. Funding.
Sec. 119. Judicial review and related matters.
Sec. 121. Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Sec. 125. Congressional Oversight Panel.
Sec. 127. Cooperation with the FBI.
Sec. 129. Disclosures on exercise of loan authority.

In HR 1424, there are enough rules, regs and CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT REQUIRED that not one Thin Dime should have been 'misspent.' So if anything crooked did go on Congress should look in a mirror. They dropped the ball -- again. And the same bunch of know-nothings will run our healthcare.

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G/S' elite mortgage unit is now at the center of allegations that they and Mr. Tourre, 31, defrauded investors with complex mortgage deals.....and then bet AGAINST investors that the scheme would fail.

Goldman is more than surviving the current financial storm. Recently it gave out billions in bonuses. G/S cultivates clout in Washington. And now they have Rahm---their very own WH toadie---pushing their agenda.

The late economist John Kenneth Galbraith blamed Goldman Sachs policies for causing the Great Depression of '29. In his book, The Great Crash, 1929, Galbraith, a key figure in JFK's admin, an entire chapter titled “In Goldman, Sachs, We Trust,” details the “large-scale corporate thimblerigging” that Goldman and other Wall Streeters practiced in the 1920s.

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GOOD FOR GOLDMAN, BAD FOR AMERICA (G/S the major toll collector on govt's red-ink railroad)
BY TERRY KEENAN, anchor of Cashin' In, Fox News Sat 11:30 AM.

EXCERPT G/S morphed into a commercial bank to take advantage of gov't handouts, yet Goldman is really a hedge fund on steroids, with trading accounting for 69% of gross revenue in the first quarter........ a big chunk of its trading involves US govt debt -- federal, state and local...... G/S has a huge vested interest in the US digging a deeper and deeper hole.........trading govt IOUs is big business.....one of the few growth markets on Wall Street. IPO's, M&A's, etc, have yet to recover but the US will borrow a record $3.25 trillion in the current fiscal year -- four times as much as in 2008.

With its biggest competitors out of business, G/S is a major toll collector on Washington's red-ink railroad.......a "debt tsunami" that will lift Goldman's fortunes. G/S plays on the bankrupting of America -- the more we borrow, the more they make........ ........but the American public should know this side of the G/S profit miracle. .......Through savvy trading and management, G/S set aside $11.4B this year to compensate its employees on a playing field cleared of its top competitors and soon after Uncle Sam bailedout G/S with $10B TARP -- and millions more through AIG, all paid for by taxpayers. G/S benefits nicely from the govt borrowing binge that was triggered in part by the banking crisis that started in Wall Street's own backyard.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07192009/business/good_for_goldman__bad_for_america_180130.htm

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