Goldman Sachs Free to Keep Stealing
By Stephen Lendman - thepeoplesvoice.org
. . . .
n April 2011, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a report on how banking giants, federal regulators, and credit rating agencies conspired to crash the subprime mortgage market.
Around 40% of it discussed Goldman. It sold an alphabet soup of securitized junk. Garbage included mortgaged-backed securities (MBSs), collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs), and various other assets structured to fail.
Combined, they sliced, diced, packaged, repackaged, and sold them in tranches to sophisticated and ordinary investors. Many bought them unwittingly through mutual funds, 401(k)s, pensions, and other investments.
The Senate listed federal security law violations. Goldman wasn't alone. Other major Wall Street banks conspired with financial partners to steal and get away with it. Justice Department officials and prosecutors got enough evidence to hang them.
Committee chairman Carl Levin said the panel's two-year probe found "a financial snake pit rife with greed, conflicts of interest and wrongdoing." He recommended prosecution. He added:
"In my judgment, Goldman clearly misled their clients and they misled Congress."On August 9, the Justice Department said it conducted "an exhaustive review of the report." It concluded that "based on the law and evidence as they exist at this time, there is not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution with respect to Goldman Sachs or its employees in regard to the allegations set forth in the report."
In other words, fraud charges don't matter. Whatever Goldman does is OK. Stealing is how it does business. Obama officials find no fault. Goldman expressed relief it's all over.
Read the whole piece here
0 COMMENTS:
Post a Comment