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Fraud*
According to the Collins English Dictionary 10th Edition fraud can be defined as: "deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage".[1] In the broadest sense, a fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual; the related adjective is fraudulent. The specific legal definition varies by legal jurisdiction. Fraud is a crime, and also a civil law violation. Defrauding people or entities of money or valuables is a common purpose of fraud, but there have also been fraudulent "discoveries", e.g. in science, to gain prestige rather than immediate monetary gain
*As defined in Wikipedia

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Justice? and Goldman Sachs

We hope that Goldman Sachs's fate within the Justice System does, indeed, impact negatively on Lloyd Blankfein. However, when you consider how Mozilo, of Countrywide fame, merely paid a fine without having to admit any wrongdoing and walked away a millionaire with his fraudulently earned money, then how could Blankfein fare any worse? We surely need an Act of God in order to obtain a different outcome for Goldman Sachs. Maybe Justice Itself is sick.

Goldman CEO Blankfein's Fate in Hands of DOJ
By Charlie Gasparino - Fox Business

Wall Street executives and senior people inside Goldman Sachs (GS: 136.21, -0.13, -0.10%) say Lloyd Blankfein may want to hang on as CEO of the big Wall Street firm, but the final decision will not be his to make. Rather, his fate rests in the hands of the U.S. Justice Department, which is probing statements he made before a Senate committee investigating Goldman’s role in the 2008 financial crisis, FOX Business has learned.

If a probe by the DOJ into Goldman’s conduct ahead of the financial crisis is expedited and the focus turns to Blankfein’s actions, the thinking goes, Goldman’s board of directors will likely offer Blankfein up as a sacrifice in exchange for leniency.

In recent months, Blankfein has given mixed signals as to whether he will stay with the firm as scrutiny on Goldman from regulators has heated up. As FOX Business first reported, Blankfein has told friends on Wall Street that he hates his job and wouldn’t mind leaving. But at a recent shareholders meeting he indicated he has no intention of stepping down, at least in the immediate future.

But people inside Goldman with knowledge of the bank’s strategy believe the manner in which Blankfein ultimately leaves the firm may not be up to the CEO, but instead involves just how far the Justice Department goes in pursuing a case against Goldman.

The DOJ probe stems from a referral made by Senator Carl Levin's (D-Mich.) committee based on Blankfein’s testimony last spring on the firm’s role in the financial crisis.

In a hearing recalled largely for Levin’s repeated use of a four-letter word, Blankfein denied that Goldman had made huge bets shorting the mortgage market, which allowed the firm to fare better than its competitors during the housing crisis.

Blankfein insisted Goldman had simply hedged against a downturn.

Levin's committee has discovered e-mails which describe the position as "the big short."

In any case, the betting on Wall Street is that the DOJ will not bring charges against Blankfein.

Read the rest of the article here

2 COMMENTS:

Anonymous said...

The Fed Does It Again: $80 Billion Secretive "Bank Subsidy" Program Uncovered, Providing Bank Loans At 0.01% Interest


Says Ivry: "The $80 billion initiative, called single-tranche open- market operations, or ST OMO, made 28-day loans from March through December 2008, a period in which confidence in global credit markets collapsed after the Sept. 15 bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Units of 20 banks were required to bid at auctions for the cash. They paid interest rates as low as 0.01 percent that December, when the Fed’s main lending facility charged 0.5 percent." 0.01% interest is also known by one other name: "outright subsidy."

It doesn't get any freer than that: 0.01% interest on one month cash. Just how close to a complete implosion was the financial system if 0.5% interest seemed too high? Not surprisingly, this program was widely used: "Credit Suisse Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc each borrowed at least $30 billion in 2008 from a Federal Reserve emergency lending program whose details weren’t revealed to shareholders, members of Congress or the public...Goldman Sachs, led by Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein, tapped the program most in December 2008, when data on the New York Fed website show the loans were least expensive. The lowest winning bid at an ST OMO auction declined to 0.01 percent on Dec. 30, 2008, New York Fed data show. At the time, the rate charged at the discount window was 0.5 percent."
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/fed-does-it-again-80-billion-secretive-bank-subsidy-program-uncovered-providing-bank-loans-0

Anonymous said...

Goldman CFO says clients "past" Levin: analyst

(Reuters) - Goldman Sachs believes its clients are "largely past" the regulatory investigations and accusations that have surrounded the bank, according to an analyst who met its Chief Financial Officer.

Goldman Chief Financial Officer David Viniar said the bank does not expect the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to bring any more claims against it after a $550 million settlement last year, according to a report from Susquehanna Financial Group analyst David Hilder.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/26/us-goldman-clients-idUSTRE74P6HD20110526

try rereading this...

Justice Department, SEC investigations often rely on companies’ internal probes

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/justice-department-sec-investigations-often-rely-on-companies-internal-probes/2011/04/26/AFO2HP9G_story_3.html

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