Posted on 04/29/2010 9:03:17 PM PDT by mlocher
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. federal prosecutors in New York have begun investigating Goldman Sachs Group Inc, raising the possibility of criminal charges against the company or its employees, a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday.
Goldman, the world's most powerful investment bank, said it was not surprised at the news. "Given the recent focus on the firm, we are not surprised by the report of an inquiry," a Goldman spokesman said. "We would fully cooperate with any requests for information."
The investigation from the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office ramps up pressure on Goldman less than two weeks after it was charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with civil fraud for allegedly hiding information from investors about a mortgage-related security.
It comes only two days after Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein and other executives faced blistering cross-examinations from lawmakers at a Washington hearing into their behavior in trading mortgage-related products as the U.S. housing market began to crumble in 2007.
Goldman, which had prided itself on its government connections, is now facing one of the biggest crises in its 140 year history and has become a poster boy for criticism of Wall Street's conduct that led up to the financial crisis.
In recent days there has been some speculation that Goldman might prefer to settle the SEC case to avoid further reputational damage.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.fidelity.com ...
It will be interesting to see where this goes. And it will be interesting to see how the financial reform bill plays out.
The list, ping
I don’t think this is what it appears to be. If you read between the lines during Blankfein’s responses to Republican questions in yesterday’s hearing, he is a solid 0 supporter. He didn’t take any of the lifelines that were thrown to him. This is probably a diversion and going nowhere i.e. maybe there will be a token fine of a billion or so.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/04/somali-pirates-say-they-are-subsidiary-of-goldman-sachs/
Somali Pirates Say They Are Subsidiary of Goldman Sachs
By Barry Ritholtz - April 26th, 2010, 3:40PM
Could Make Prosecution Difficult, Experts Say
NORFOLK, VIRGINIA – (The Borowitz Report) Eleven indicted Somali pirates dropped a bombshell in a U.S. court today, revealing that their entire piracy operation is a subsidiary of banking giant Goldman Sachs.
There was an audible gasp in the courtroom when the leader of the pirates announced, “We are doing God’s work. We work for Lloyd Blankfein.”
The pirate, who said he earned a bonus of $48 million in dubloons last year, elaborated on the nature of the Somalis’ work for Goldman, explaining that the pirates forcibly attacked ships that Goldman had already shorted.
“We were functioning as investment bankers, only every day was casual Friday,” the pirate said.
The pirate acknowledged that they merged their operations with Goldman in late 2008 to take advantage of the more relaxed regulations governing bankers as opposed to pirates, “plus to get our share of the bailout money.”
In the aftermath of the shocking revelations, government prosecutors were scrambling to see if they still had a case against the Somali pirates, who would now be treated as bankers in the eyes of the law.
“There are lots of laws that could bring these guys down if they were, in fact, pirates,” one government source said. “But if they’re bankers, our hands are tied.”
I meant to add that financial reform will be very favorable to GS.
Don’t forget Fannie and Freddie and their ties to CCX.
Cute. I got this in an e-mail from my wife who is in the mortgage industry a week ago.
Yes, Obie’s financial reform will be very favorable to Goldman Sachs.
Any real criminal investigation would put half of Obama’s top people in jail. Now seeing the GS men, plus Fannie Mae’s Chief Thief Raines, in jail with Big Bubba would be a sight to see. I’d even pay to see it.
Medoff might get the last laugh yet.
Oh, I forgot. If GS men go to jail, Obama and Holder will give them pardons. Why not? They did it for Marc Rich, another thief, and the communist terrorists of the May 19th Communist Organization/WUO and the Puerto Rican marxist Cuban-trained terrorists the FALN.
Our govt leaders are as corrupt as any in American history and they achieved all this in 18 months. In another 18 months, there won’t be any USA, anymore. It will be the USSA, and you can color Obama “RED”.
Yes, Obie’s financial reform will be very favorable to Goldman Sachs.
Any real criminal investigation would put half of Obama’s top people in jail. Now seeing the GS men, plus Fannie Mae’s Chief Thief Raines, in jail with Big Bubba would be a sight to see. I’d even pay to see it.
Medoff might get the last laugh yet.
Oh, I forgot. If GS men go to jail, Obama and Holder will give them pardons. Why not? They did it for Marc Rich, another thief, and the communist terrorists of the May 19th Communist Organization/WUO and the Puerto Rican marxist Cuban-trained terrorists the FALN.
Our govt leaders are as corrupt as any in American history and they achieved all this in 18 months. In another 18 months, there won’t be any USA, anymore. It will be the USSA, and you can color Obama “RED”.
Here is an interesting link about a company called Magnetar Capital, which had a significant role in promoting toxic “shorts” during the failing market. Lots of interesting comments, and some good linked articles at the bottom of the page:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8a79c6f6-47f7-11df-b998-00144feab49a.html
Wouldn’t it be nice if they eventually figured all this out:
http://www.mofopolitics.com/2010/04/29/video-glenn-beck-show-42910/
Don't tell parsy. He might learn something.
Thank you. Updated Obama-nomics:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2464021/posts
[Now past 140 posts and links]
And updated Monster Ping
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2496737/posts
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