Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs fined £17.5m by FSA
BBC Business News 9 September 2010
Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs has been fined £17.5m ($27m) by the UK's City regulator, the Financial Services Authority.
The fine is for failing to tell the FSA it was under investigation for fraud by the US financial watchdog this summer.
In July, Goldman settled the fraud charge with the Securities and Exchange Commission by paying $550m (£356m).
BBC business editor Robert Peston said it was one of the heaviest fines ever imposed by the FSA.
Margaret Cole, FSA managing director of enforcement and financial crime, said: "GSI [Goldman Sachs International] did not set out to hide anything, but its defective systems and controls meant that the level and quality of its communications with the FSA fell far below what we expect of an authorised firm."
Goldman agreed to pay the US fine to settle civil fraud charges of misleading investors.
The charges concerned the bank's marketing of complex mortgage investments, just as the US housing market faltered.
The FSA said Goldman also did not tell them that Fabrice Tourre, the trader who helped to create these mortgage derivatives, was under investigation.
This, it said, was particularly relevant as Mr Tourre moved from the US to London, and therefore came under the auspices of the UK regulator.
Goldman has admitted that it made a mistake, our correspondent added.
Read the full story here
3 COMMENTS:
Why do these guys earn the big bucks?..oh yeah their financial geniuses.
SEC Says Prince, Rubin Knew of Losses on Assets at Suit's Focus
Charles O. “Chuck” Prince and Robert Rubin were among Citigroup Inc. officials who knew 2007 losses were mounting on mortgage assets that U.S. regulators have faulted the bank for not disclosing, a court filing shows.
http://tinyurl.com/2cys7az
GS earn big bucks but investors get shafted... and still people invest... dumb dumb dumb
Isn't it the case that if a company is under criminal investigation they have to stop business?
but no one is in handcuffs...........
End the Stranglehold of the Large Banks
First, the large banks. If there is anything anyone that dislikes the system as it stands should be against it is the TBTF (Too Big To Fail) banks. They played a huge role in destroying the global financial system and the long-term wealth creation mechanism of the United States. Not only that, but as a punishment for their sins they have taken taxpayer bailouts, paid enormous bonuses while 35 million Americans entered the food stamp breadline, fought real reform every step of the way (successfully I might add) and the executives have escaped punishment. We protect these banks as if they are some sort of national treasure. The one trend that becomes clear when it comes to the banks, the Fed and the power players in Washington D.C. is the more you screw up the more power you get. It is amazingly Orwellian.
http://tinyurl.com/23vkoxu
Post a Comment