Free Republic

Sergey Aleynikov has conviction dismissed out of hand by appeal judges after serving a year for copying trading software A former Goldman Sachs computer programmer has been freed from prison after a surprise ruling from a federal appeals court quashed his conviction for stealing computer code. "Justice occasionally works," said Russian-born Sergey Aleynikov, who walked free after serving one year out of a sentence of eight years or more. Aleynikov, a naturalised US citizen who emigrated from Russia in 1990, was first arrested in July 2009 as he returned from a trip to Chicago to the offices of his new...

Bloomberg.com reported, Feb. 1, that Goldman Sachs Group workers contributed $106,580 to Mitt Romney's presidential bid in the fourth quarter of last year and that Goldie is his largest source of campaign bucks at a half-million total so far. Goldman Sachs does like to spread its money around. It gave boatloads to Barack Obama and got Timothy Geithner as secretary of the treasury in return, along with a whole lot of bonus people. . . . In other Goldman Sachs news, its CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, became the first national corporate spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual advocacy group....

On September 24, 2008, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), (BRK.B) and Goldman Sachs (GS) entered into an agreement in which Berkshire Hathaway purchased $5 billion of Goldman’s preferred shares paying a 10% dividend. Berkshire also received warrants granting it the right to buy $5 billion of Goldman Sachs common stock at $115 per share (or 43.5 million shares) through October 1, 2013. Goldman Sachs called the preferred stock for redemption on April 18, 2011 at a premium of 10% over par value, plus accrued and unpaid dividends. As a result, Berkshire Hathaway earned approximately $1.75 billion ($1.25 billion in dividends plus a...

Last September, Goldman Sachs announced that it was going to issue a $2 billion sukuk. The investment banking giant dutifully employed a Shariah advisory firm, Dar Al-Istithmar Limited, and went about the business of putting together the financing arrangement. There was just one problem. Goldman Sachs made one mistake: they trusted the financial jihadis. To make a long story short, some other Shariah scholars have questioned Goldman Sachs’ sukuk arrangement and the whole deal is now in limbo. We’d like to say we have sympathy for Goldman Sachs’ plight, but let’s face it: they’re the biggest of the big boys...

When Bain Capital sought to raise money in 1989 for a fast-growing office-supply company named Staples, Mitt Romney, Bain’s founder, called upon a trusted business partner: Goldman Sachs, whose bankers led the company’s initial public offering. When Mr. Romney became governor of Massachusetts, his blind trust gave Goldman much of his wealth to manage, a fortune now estimated to be as much as $250 million. And as Mr. Romney mounts his second bid for the presidency, Goldman is coming through again: Its employees have contributed at least $367,000 to his campaign, making the firm Mr. Romney’s largest single source of...

Goldman Sachs Ties Enrich Romney No other company but Bain so closely intertwined with candidate's public, private lives By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, PETER LATTMAN and KEVIN ROOSE When Bain Capital sought to raise money in 1989 for a fast-growing office-supply company named Staples, Mitt Romney, Bain’s founder, called upon a trusted business partner: Goldman Sachs, whose bankers led the company’s initial public offering. When Mr. Romney became governor of Massachusetts, his blind trust gave Goldman much of his wealth to manage, a fortune now estimated to be as much as $250 million. And as Mr. Romney mounts his second bid for...

Goldman Sachs countered the negative tone set so far with big-bank earnings, beating Wall Street expectations and sending shares higher in premarket trading Wednesday.

Have a column on Iowa coming soon, but first, a quick but absurd note from the world of high finance. It seems Jim O'Neill, the head of Goldman's Asset Management department, is predicting that the United States stock market may go up "15 to 20 percent." O'Neill apparently believes Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve will resort to another round of money-printing, and finally green-light the long-awaited "Qe3," or third round of "Quantitative Easing." The QE programs involve the Fed printing hundreds of billions of dollars and pumping them into the marketplace, where they ostensibly stimulate the economy (although recent...

It’s been a long while now since that frightful Halloween when MF Global filed the eighth-largest bankruptcy in the history of the United States. Too long a time if you are an MF customer and can’t get access or answers to what happen to your money. Certain individuals at MF Global breached the sacrosanctity of segregated customer accounts to cover for liquidity shortfalls induced from extremely leveraged bets gone extremely bad, reportedly made by CEO Jon Corzine and his confidants. Which brings us to a primary point in the MF Global debacle: Exactly where were Jon Corzine’s millions held while...

File this one under culture of corruption. Obama supporters just can’t seem to stay out of trouble, can they? This latest scandal involves a former Tarheels basketball player and a $21 million bank fraud scheme. New York Daily News reports: Courtney Dupree was convicted of vastly overstating the billings of his Long Island City-based lighting company GDC Acquisitions in order to fraudulently obtain a loan from Amalgamated Bank.Dupree, 42, sat stone-faced as the verdict was read in Brooklyn Federal Court. He faces up to 30 years in prison and has to pay back at least $18 million. …Dupree, who attended...

All you Ron Paul supporters, you are obviously one digit short of a normal IQ or have a single digit IQ. No conservative believes we had anything to do with 911 or believes we brought it on ourselves. Once you step into the realm of 911 being America's fault, you're in the realm of kook ville anti-America rhetoric. I don't want a President that's going to sympathize with our enemies and rationalize it as it must be our fault. We have that already with Obamalama. If you like that, vote for Hussein. Also, being a military veteran, I'm sure as...

Yahoo shares fall after Goldman derides company AP – Wed, Dec 14, 2011. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo shares dropped Wednesday after Goldman Sachs advised investors to sell the struggling Internet company's stock. THE SPARK: Goldman Sachs analyst Heath Terry depicted Yahoo as a perpetually misguided company that will have trouble competing against more innovative rivals that have been forging ahead with compelling products that are winning over consumers and advertisers. Yahoo Inc. has spent much of the past three months evaluating whether it makes sense to sell all or part of the company, but Terry predicted the outcome of...

Yet unlike Jerry Sandusky, Jon Corzine will never be held accountable for his misdeeds. Jon Corzine is above the law. For those horrified at the comparison between these two vile men, it is not offered lightly. Most people of all political stripes agree that Jerry Sandusky should burn in a fiery pit of hell. Even people who are against torture would consider making him an exception. The former Penn State football coach sexually violated underage boys. The word "evil" is tossed around cavalierly, but Sandusky's actions fit the bill.

Hank Paulson Tipped Off The Goldman-Led "Plunge Protection Team" About Fannie Bankruptcy 7 Weeks In Advance Today, BusinessWeek's Michael Serrill and Jonathan Neumann have released a blockbuster report based on a FOIA response by the Treasury, which proves that in America rules are only for little people, that this country has been a banana republic for years, that Animal Farm was spot on, and gives excruciating detail of how Hank Paulson tipped off a select group of Goldman diaspora hedge fund managers about the eventual failure of Fannie and Freddie 7 weeks ahead of this information becoming public knowledge. The...

If we measure by 2012 campaign contributions of people who work for Goldman... (drum roll)... Mitt Romney ! He tops the list. Here are the top 25, again, from opensecrets.org - and good news ! You may find a few surprises on this list... be sure to look for your favorite politician... Romney, Mitt (R) Pres $367,200 Gillibrand, Kirsten (D-NY) Senate $52,000 Rubio, Marco (R-FL) Senate $51,000 Obama, Barack (D) Pres $50,124 Brown, Scott P (R-MA) Senate $46,150 Cruz, Ted (R-TX) Senate $37,250 Stabenow, Debbie (D-MI) Senate $29,000 Pawlenty, Tim (R) Pres $25,000 Cantor, Eric (R-VA) House $20,500 Himes, Jim...

Listening to an interview of Peter Schwiezer talking to Steve Bannon (Director of Palin's Undefeated movie)...There's a whole chapter in Peter's new book exposing Warren Buffet. Supposedly he is involved in insider trading. This chapter of Schweizer's book shows how his company got the sweetheart deal to invest in Goldman Sachs in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis. One member of Congress even bought Berkshire stock the day before the deal was even announced....It was a racket!

Not on even a Sunday is the headline barrage over: MARIO MONTI ASKED TO FORM NEW ITALIAN GOVERNMENT MONTI TO MAKE COMMENTS AFTER ACCEPTING OFFER TO LEAD ITALY MARIO MONTI THANKS NAPOLITANO FOR OFFER TO FORM GOVERNMENT MARIO MONTI SAYS ITALY MUST BE PROTAGONIST IN EUROPE MARIO MONTI SAYS HE'LL ACT TO SAVE ITALY FROM CRISIS And so the international advisor to Goldman Sachs drones on. In the meantime, the €300 billion in BTP sales is set to resume in just over 13 hours. Yet the reason why the EURUSD is less than jubilant on the news is that Silvio...

The chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management has said that the need for a German-led fiscal integration in the eurozone would make it increasingly unattractive for all the countries who joined to stay in the single currency. Jim O’Neill, whose division manages more than $800bn (£500bn) of assets, said that countries as diverse as Portugal, Ireland, Finland and Greece could pull out of the single currency rather than have to operate under a single eurozone treasury. Yesterday, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said the market turmoil could last for a decade and there was still “a chunk of work” to...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The regulator overseeing the investigation of Jon Corzine's collapsed securities firm, MF Global, gave $10,000 to the New Jersey Democratic Party in 2005 as Corzine ran for governor of that state. Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Corzine had worked together for 18 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and later collaborated to pass a law to combat corporate fraud. Election records show Gensler gave the money in August 2005. Corzine, a Democrat, was elected governor later that year. MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. Gensler and other regulators are trying...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The lead regulator investigating the collapse of Jon Corzine's securities firm, MF Global, worked alongside him for 18 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The two later collaborated to pass a law intended to prevent accounting scandals. Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, rose to become Goldman's co-head of finance before leaving in 1997. Corzine left Goldman in 1999, after serving as chairman and CEO. The two later collaborated when Corzine was a senator and Gensler worked on Capitol Hill. As a key staffer for Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., Gensler advised Sarbanes on the...

That is the refrain you hear over and over again when MF Global insiders try to explain why they went along with Jon Corzine’s risky trades — the same ones that caused a crisis of confidence at the firm and, ultimately, its bankruptcy on Monday. Mr. Corzine was at Goldman Sachs for nearly 25 years, rising to become its senior partner before being ousted in a boardroom coup in 1999. He was considered a bright, aggressive trader who had a history of making big bets that paid off. When he joined MF Global last year — after a decade in...

Byron Trott has a household name, provided that the household is worth a few billion dollars. Trott is a Chicago investment banker who has advised the likes of the Pritzkers and the Wrigleys. He earns their trust, friends and competitors said, because he is the soul of discretion, never leaking details of pending deals or hogging credit. Accordingly, he seldom gives interviews or takes leading roles in civic functions. Insiders said Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel had to twist his arm to get him to join the board of World Business Chicago, the city’s economic development promoter. And yet Trott...

As it got colder in Lower Manhattan on October 22 the Occupy Wall Street meeting of the General Assembly considered a proposal for a people's tribunal against Goldman Sachs, for November 3. While other proposals were confronted by blocks, a form of quasi veto, this one passed by consensus. A block away JPMorgan Chase stood surrounded by fencing and police. It has been the subject of a number of marches from Zuccotti Park, but Goldman Sachs until now as escaped direct action. Goldman does not offer regular bank accounts or student loans, although it trades in both, and in the...

While hardly the explanation for why the EURUSD has surged nearly 100 pips in the past 45 minutes on absolutely no news (or, in this bizarro market, explaining it perfectly), and as the market focuses its attention on where the line of angry young protesters is longer: by the New York Stock Exchange or in front of the Apple store, Italians, once again betrayed by their politicians who were bribed by Berlusconi to vote for him in the latest vote of "confidence" (at a price of €250k per vote), have decided to make their feelings for financial innovation, and its...

The man who called Goldman Sachs a "great vampire squid" has some advice for Occupy Wall Street. 1. Break up the monopolies. He's talking about the 20 or so "too big to fail" companies in our country that could single-handedly take down our economy. 2. Pay for your own bailouts... 3. No public money for private lobbying.

While the professional Left trashes Wall Street, they might want to consider how their current President got elected.  The Sunlight Foundation reports that Barack Obama didn’t just win the Wall Street sweepstakes in 2008 over John McCain — he’s done better at getting Wall Street cash than any other President in the last 20 years: Despite his rhetorical attacks on Wall Street, a study by the Sunlight Foundation’s Influence Project shows that President Barack Obama has received more money from Wall Street than any other politician over the past 20 years, including former President George W. Bush.In 2008, Wall Street’s largesse accounted for...

U.S. crude oil futures will hit $109 a barrel in 2012 as new pipelines, rail lines and other infrastructure help relieve bottlenecks at a central gathering hub in Oklahoma and carry more oil from Canada and the northern U.S. to refiners on the Gulf Coast and elsewhere, according to a Goldman Sachs forecast. The prediction represents a drop from the investment bank’s previous forecast of $123.50 a barrel and reflects the increasingly anxious outlook for the global economic recovery. The bank also trimmed its 2012 Brent price estimate to $120 a barrel from $130 amid growing fears of a European...

The Occupy Wall Street group at first glance seemed sensible and I even admired their ability to organize and promote their message. I assumed that their agenda was based on an anti corporate socialist system that has been unfair, corrupt and overly leveraged to prop up the wealthy institutions. I believe that we need to let the "too big to fail" fail. I believe that we cannot continually prop up the banks. I thought I was on the same page as the Occupy Wall Street group and it is easy to be deceived. Their message is a blurry message as...

Goldman's Jim O'Neill: 'What Is The Matter With Everyone?' Sam Ro That's the question Jim O'Neill poses in his weekly letter, which is sarcastically titled Let's Worry About Everything. O'Neill, who is the reason why we say BRICs, argues that last week's economic and corporate news was "benign" and that the market selloff seemed uncalled for: Judging by the price action, market participants seem to be increasingly convinced of imminent recessions in Europe and the US as well as a prolonged period of “Japanisation,” in which positive GDP growth struggles to keep ahead of a weaker underlying growth trend. If...

The newly appointed chief of President Obama's Social Innovation and Civic Participation Council is a member of a globalist organization whose activists can be found throughout the Obama administration. Jonathan Greenblatt was appointed the new head of Obama's Social Innovation Unit earlier this month.... WND reported last week that until his appointment to the Obama administration, Greenblatt served as the director of a social justice group funded by George Soros. ..Now it has emerged that Greenblatt is a member of the globalist group Pacific Council on International Policy, or PCIP. He previously chaired PCIP's energy and environment committee and served...

Megan McArdle writes in the Atlantic about the difference between government venture capital and private venture capital. By far the biggest difference is not even mentioned. There is a dramatic and critical difference between government loan guarantees and private venture capital (PVC). The PVC investor expects to make a bundle from his investment, typically by getting an equity stake and cashing out when the successful firm goes public. That’s the best case scenario for PVC. If the company fails, they’re out their seed capital. When the government gets into the venture capital business, risking your money and mine, what’s the...

World is heading for 'Great Stagnation', says Goldman There is a growing risk that the global economy will move from the 'Great Recession' into the 'Great Stagnation', according to economists at Goldman Sachs. By Angela Monaghan, Economics Correspondent 1:18PM BST 30 Sep 2011 Stagnations typically mean long periods of sluggish growth of about 0.5pc, low inflation, rising and sticky unemployment, stagnant house prices, and lower returns on shares, they said. There is a 40pc chance of the current situation developing into a period of stagnation among developed economies, Goldman calculated. "Trends in Europe and the US are so far still...

Today at some point, the House votes (again) on a continuing resolution to fund government past Sept. 30. Will it fail to reach an agreement as it did yesterday, with just a day before yet another break which will likely mean no more votes until the actual shutdown? Goldman explains what to expect from the events this afternoon/evening. From Goldman's Alec Phillips _________________________________________________ Yesterday’s failed vote in the House has led to headlines raising the possibility of a government shutdown, but this seems unlikely. The new fiscal year starts Oct. 1 and Congress has yet to enact any of the...

Goldman Sachs is funneling $25 million in loans and educational grants to Chicago-area small businesses, Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced Tuesday. The investment bank launched its 10,000 Small Businesses initiative in 2009, committing $500 million to provide education, access to capital and business support services to entrepreneurs. The initiative is already running in Houston, Los Angeles, New York, New Orleans and Long Beach, Calif.

We end this busy day of economic buffoonery with Goldman's scorecard for August ("the US economy has not fallen off a cliff", which we translate as a B+, and "far better than expected"), which in turn explains why Goldman, and everyone else, now assumes QE3 (yes, Op Twist is QE3; get over it) is not only a given, but why in Goldman's esteemed opinion, the Fed has at least 3 rationales for pushing for more QEasing. Incidentally, these are as follows: "First, unemployment is far above the Fed’s long-term forecast in the low 5% range; the longer high unemployment...

Dear Banks, Remember all of that bailout money you received? Sure hope you saved some of it. US authorities are preparing to sue more than a dozen big banks over claims they misrepresented the quality of mortgages sold during the 2006-7 housing bubble.The US Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which is overseeing the remains of failed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is reportedly planning to argue that America’s biggest banks failed to check the health of mortgages before they sold them on to investors. The collapse of hundreds of thousands of sub-prime mortgages triggered the 2008 credit crisis...

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs are among those expected to be named in the lawsuit. The agency that oversees U.S. mortgage markets is preparing to file suit against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgages they packaged and sold during the housing bubble, The New York Times reported on Thursday. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is expected to file suit against Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, among other banks, the Times reported, citing three...

U.S. Set To Sue Big Banks Over Bad Mortgages Agency says B of A, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, others misrepresented securities By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ The federal agency that oversees the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is set to file suits against more than a dozen big banks, accusing them of misrepresenting the quality of mortgage securities they assembled and sold at the height of the housing bubble, and seeking billions of dollars in compensation. The Federal Housing Finance Agency suits, which are expected to be filed in the coming days in federal court, are aimed at Bank...

Even Goldman Sachs Secretly Believes That An Economic Collapse Is ComingSeptember 1, 2011 Even Goldman Sachs is doing it again. Goldman is telling the public that everything is going to be just fine, but meanwhile they are advising their top clients to bet on a huge financial collapse. On August 16th, a 54 page report authored by Goldman strategist Alan Brazil was distributed to institutional clients. The general public was not intended to see this report. Fortunately, some folks over at the Wall Street Journal got their hands on a copy and they have filled us in on some of...

A large group of 2008 Barack Obama supporters are now banking on Mitt Romney for the upcoming presidential election. That’s according to a report from Fox News that says a shift in Wall Street support could mean as much as a $150,000 boost for Romney’s campaign. “I think Romney could at least split Wall Street with Obama, which is something McCain really didn’t do,” said Charlie Gasparino, a reporter for Fox Business News. None of the expected bank presidents showed up to a recent fundraiser for President Obama, he added.

What’s Lloyd Blankfein afraid of? You can pick any number of things that could have caused the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs to go out and hire an expensive criminal defense attorney, but his most pressing concern has to be a guy named Rajat Gupta. Gupta was a friend of Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of Galleon Group who is going to jail for insider trading. Gupta was also an esteemed member of Goldman’s board of directors and would have been aware of anything important that was occurring at Goldman Sachs. Phone conversations with Gupta that came up during Raj’s...

Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein has hired Reid Weingarten, a high-profile Washington defense attorney whose past clients include a former Enron accounting officer, according to a government source familiar with the matter. Blankfein, 56, is in his sixth year at the helm of the largest U.S. investment bank, which has spent two years dodging accusations of conflicts of interest and fraud. The move to retain Weingarten comes as investigations of Goldman and its role in the 2007-2009 financial crisis continue. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission scored a $550 million settlement against the bank in a fraud lawsuit in...

JP Morgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon just gave a very optimistic speech on CNBC. He refuted rumors that the S&P downgrade will make it harder for banks like JPMorgan to make money on CNBC right now. "The S&P downgrade is just an opinion," he says. The market leaders he knows don't use the S&P to make their decisions, he says. He also added, "The U.S. needs to show fiscal discipline." But he says, "I'm hopeful that we'll" start to do that soon. Then he brought out the good ol' American spirit. "I think we need America to do what America...

Yesterday Goldman finally made it clear that Bill Dudley's marching orders are given: QE3 or no soup for you. Well, it didn't take long for the order from top to hit Goldman's FX desk, which has just issued this logical note: "Going short the USD on additional Fed easing." Odd, no easing has yet been announced, and according to so many none will come. But Goldman said so. So it must be. From Thomas Stolper: We have long argued that structural imbalances in the US will lead to more Dollar weakness. There are two main transmission channels: First, the current...

For six years Overstock.com has waged a war to expose Wall Street mischief. We did not go looking for a fight, but our company was attacked, and we learned we were not alone: the same manipulation-for-profit tools that Wall Street had deployed against us had also been deployed against many American companies, harming job creation, innovation, and economic growth. We knew that if left unchecked and unexposed, Wall Street's games could ultimately damage U.S. capital markets. So in 2005 and 2007 we filed two lawsuits. The first case was against a hedge fund (Rocker Partners) and hatchet-job-for-hire research team (Gradient...

For six years Overstock.com has waged a war to expose Wall Street mischief. We did not go looking for a fight, but our company was attacked, and we learned we were not alone: the same manipulation-for-profit tools that Wall Street had deployed against us had also been deployed against many American companies, harming job creation, innovation, and economic growth. We knew that if left unchecked and unexposed, Wall Street's games could ultimately damage U.S. capital markets. So in 2005 and 2007 we filed two lawsuits. The first case was against a hedge fund (Rocker Partners) and hatchet-job-for-hire research team (Gradient...

"More than a dozen traders have quit Goldman Sachs... North American government bonds and derivatives trading desk in New York in recent months as the bank takes fewer risks and big bonuses for ambitious traders dry up," Lauren Tara LaCapra reports at Reuters. Apparently while salespeople have been rewarded with better compensation -- as well as promotions -- traders have largely been ignored as Goldman moves to focus on client trading. "[T]raders who left Goldman's rates desk complained they were hamstrung by aggressive risk managers who limited position sizes and second-guessed trades," Reuters reported. "They also said they were being...

Goldman Sachs Group Inc's (GS.N) net income rose during the second quarter but fell short of lowered market expectations as fixed income trading revenue dropped sharply. The biggest U.S. investment bank by assets earned $1.05 billion, or $1.85 per share, more than double the $453 million, or 78 cents per share, of a year earlier, Goldman said on Tuesday.

Goldman Sachs released some disappointing earnings numbers this morning. In the report were details of the drop in compensation costs. According to the report, compensation expenses -- which includes salaries, bonuses and benefits -- fell to $3.2 billion for the second quarter of 2011. That represents a big 16% decline from this time last year. Compare that to Q1 compensation costs this year, which clocked in at $5.23 billion and was only down 5% compared to Q1 2010.

Back during the financial crisis of 2008, the American people were told that the largest banks in the United States were "too big to fail" and that was why it was necessary for the federal government to step in and bail them out. The idea was that if several of our biggest banks collapsed at the same time the financial system would not be strong enough to keep things going and economic activity all across America would simply come to a standstill. Congress was told that if the "too big to fail" banks did not receive bailouts that there would...