Criminal Probe into Goldman Sachs | The Big PictureBy Barry Ritholtz
Goldman Sachs: SEC sends case to prosecutors
By Barry Secrest
Goldman Scrutinized by Prosecutors Reviewing SEC Case
BusinessWeek
The devil in Goldman Sachs
Christian Science Monitor
Goldman Sachs fraud, how they cheated investors with exploding ...
By Report Fraud
Daniel Sparks, Goldman Sachs Exec: Did He Lie Under Oath?
Huffington Post (blog)
Kendall Law Group Plans Class Action on Behalf of Goldman Sachs Group, Inc ...
MarketWatch (press release)
More tsuris for Goldman Sachs (and others) -- to the Bay Area's benefit
San Francisco Chronicle (blog)
In Goldman's Defiance, a Hint of Truce
BusinessWeek
What's Next for Goldman Sachs? - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com
By By PETER J. HENNING
4 COMMENTS:
That's a lot of reading:
Novel Observations On Abacusgate
Reading a 901 page Goldman document production (cover to cover) at 36,000 feet has proven to be both relaxing and quite productive. Among the plethora of emails, documents and memoranda, we may have stumbled upon something that could prove to be an even "bigger short" for John Paulson than RMBS: a $2 billion postion in Bear CDS initiated prior to January 2007, as well as all other financial firms. Additionally, we discover that arguably the world's richest hedge fund manager (for a reason) was prophetically putting on bank counterparty hedges as early late 2006, up to and including Goldman Sachs itself. Most relevantly, in what could be damaging disclosure by Fabrice Tourre, the Frenchman notes that as a result of Paulson's mistrust of Goldman's counterparty risk, the Abacus AC1 deal was structured in a novel way in which "they would be acting as protection buyer, facing the ABACUS SPV (as opposed to a structure where Goldman is protection buyer as is usually the case)." This little legalistic variation could make a world of difference in an Attorney General's hands. It may be time to very carefully read the indenture of AC1 and compare it with those of 2006 and earlier "Abaci."
So much for nobody having heard of Paulson as CNBC claims: Goldman's entire prop trading strategy in late 2006 and early 2007 was determined exclusively by JP's actions - after all, unlike all other obsequious Goldman clients, Paulson would not bat an eyelid before shorting Goldman. And however Goldman is positioned on prop, so the entire market soon follows. We wonder at what point Goldman decided to start accumulating AIG CDS, and whether that trade was also predicated by following the "Paulson" example. To be sure, there are 1,999,099 discovery pages still held by the Senate and the SEC. We urge them to release these pages immediately so that every action of Goldman Sachs can be deconstructed by the objective public.
http://tinyurl.com/23yv63z
In Rolling Stone, Matt Taibbi mentions precious-metals Ponzi schemes
Taibbi hasn't responded to GATA directly but his latest essay for Rolling Stone, "The Feds vs. Goldman Sachs," published in the magazine's May 13 issue, which was posted on the Internet this week --
http://tinyurl.com/3xgpo6m
-- contains a paragraph suggesting that he has at least noted what he has heard from this quarter. Taibbi writes:
"There is more fraud out there, and everyone knows it: front-running, manipulation of the commodities markets, trading ahead of interest-rate moves, hidden losses, Enron-esque accounting, Ponzi schemes in the precious-metals markets, you name it. We gave these people nearly a trillion bailout dollars, and no one knows what service they actually provide beyond fraud, gross self-indulgence and the occasional transparently insincere public apology."
"Manipulation of the commodities markets" and "Ponzi schemes in the precious-metals markets," eh? Well, it's a start. Let's hope Taibbi follows up. But regardless of whether he does, GATA is aware of three major newspapers that have begun making serious inquiries about the gold and silver price suppression scheme. Whoever gets to it first will have the financial story of the century, revealing the secret knowledge of the financial universe.
http://gata.org/node/8591
I guess if this is the prevailing wisdom then everyone needs to take a different approach when playing the game...
Fraudonomics
The big dirty secret of why you should worry about a fraud crackdown more than Goldman Sachs—revealed for the first time by an anonymous private equity 'hypocrite' and 'liar.'
The Big Secret, of course, is that every living creature within a 100-mile radius of Cooper Union would fail “this scrutiny”—or that scrutiny, or any scrutiny, period. Not just in a 100-mile radius, but wherever there are still signs of economic life beating in these 50 United States, the mere whiff of scrutiny would work like nerve gas on what’s left of the economy. Because in the 21st century, fraud is as American as baseball, apple pie and Chevrolet Volts—fraud’s all we got left, Doc. Scare off the fraud with Obama’s “scrutiny,” and the entire pyramid scheme collapses in a heap of smoldering savings accounts.
That’s how an acquaintance of mine, a partner in a private equity firm, put it: “Whoever pops this fraud bubble is going to have to escape on the next flight out, faster than the Bin Laden Bunch fled Kentucky in their chartered jets after 9/11.”
And that’s why this SEC suit accusing Goldman Sachs of fraud is really just a negotiating bluff to give Obama’s people some leverage—or it’s supposed to be, anyway—according to the PE guy. He dismissed all the speculation that the fraud investigations would turn on other obvious villains like Deutsche, Merrill, Paulson & Co., the Rahm Emmanuel-linked Magnetar and so on.
“You don’t get it, Ames. Even Khuzami, the SEC guy in charge of the Goldman case, is a fraud; the fucker was Deutsche’s general counsel when they pulled the same CDO scam as Goldman. You have no idea how deep this goes.”
It got a lot more vicious and personal than this, but when our verbal slap-fight ended—and he paid the bill—I thought about what he said, and it made a lot more sense. Fraud has become so endemic in this country that it’s woven its way into America’s DNA, forming a symbiotic relationship that can’t be undone without killing off the host. If they push it just a little too hard, the entire American economy could crash, asset values could tank, and that means tens of millions of extremely pissed off retirees and Baby Boomers. As the Wall Streeter put it: “Whoever is responsible for bursting this latest bubble by exposing all the fraud—and tanking all the markets—will not only be out of power for at least a generation, but they’ll all have to get radical reconstructive surgery on their faces and seek political asylum somewhere remote. No one wants to be that guy, and that’s why it’s not going to happen.”
http://nypress.com/article-21163-fraudonomics.html
What have we all lost because of the "too big to fail" banks actions?
Hmmmm, let me think... Our jobs, our homes, our pensions, our investments/retirement funds, small businesses, and or lack there of, and our credit scores, which ironically is still regulated by the thieves that took all this from us in the first place. We almost lost our great country to a serious depression, and their actions also negatively affected the world economy.
What have they lost – nothing, only gained and still gaining…
The cost to fix their mess has been estimated to be 11 trillion over the next decade (12 zero’s, and you could cover the entire world several times over with those dollar bills). We have paid "the too big to fail" banks billions already, and still counting. This is criminal and needs just legal action to be implemented ASAP. Compensation for our losses must also be sought after – now!
I have created a facebook group page that hopefully you could help send out to the masses: the people vs. too big to fail banks The more that click to join the better.
Or, send this email out to whomever you believe wants justice brought against these scam artist and reply to me.
Eventually, I will be omitting the number of people (just the total amount) of this FB group page and the emails to class action attorneys & firms. With more people aboard, maybe we can get the attention of an attorney (with guts) to lead us in a class action against these thieves.
Please help my/our cause.
Thank you for your valuable time
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