Goldman Sachs's Many Connections

In the following article in RollingStone, Matt Taibbi offers a glimpse into how campaign finance money from banks and corporations influence decision-making by politicians. In the example given, it is Attorney General Tom Miller being looked at. Naked Capitalism confirms that large amounts of campaign money did indeed make a difference in the way Tom Miller acted.

Taibbi also makes connections between lawyers offering campaign money and the same lawyers defending Goldman Sachs when it was sued for ripping off an Australian hedge fund using "toxic mortgage-backed CDOs." Here's an excerpt:

Best Way to Raise Campaign Money? Investigate Banks
By Matt Taibbi - RollingStone

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Hence the sudden avalanche of money sent Miller’s way. The numbers are laughable. In 2006, out -of-state donors gave Miller’s campaign $10,508. For the 2010 cycle, that number was $497,357. Three lawyers by themselves – Al Gore’s attorney David Boies, plus Donald Flexner and Robert Silver, all partners in the firm Boies, Schiller and Flexner – gave Miller a total of $60,000.

Guess who Boies’ firm defended last year, in a suit brought by an Australian hedge fund that claims it was ripped off in a deal involving toxic mortgage-backed CDOs? That’s right: Goldman, Sachs. Goldman hired Boies to represent it in a fight against the now-defunct Basis Yield Alpha Fund, which bought into Goldman’s notorious “Timberwolf” deal – one of the “shitty deals” Senator Carl Levin, in hearings last year, was haranguing Goldman for selling to unsuspecting clients.

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Read the entire article here