Goldman routinely commits these offenses and frauds and expects to pay monetary penalties that it budgets for out of its massive profits each year. It is laughably the least amount of pain that Goldman can ever experience because, ironically, these fines are miniscule in comparison with the harm they do to the financial system and compared with the monetary gains obtained by breaking the rules and/or breaking the law. This is one crazy world.
A 'puny' fine for GS goof
By Kaja Whitehouse and Mark De Cambre - New York Post
An outspoken regulator lashed out at a $1.5 million settlement between Goldman Sachs and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission — calling the deal a steal for the Wall Street bank.
Bart Chilton, a CFTC commissioner, described the cash amount as “puny” and “a slap on the wrist” when compared to the whopping $8.3 billion trade at the center of the case.
In 2007, a Goldman trader hid the outsize trade as the market unraveled.
“This is another example of where puny penalties send the wrong message for these guys who are breaking the law,” Chilton told The Post.
“It’s not even a sneeze for them,” he said of the fine, which is roughly equivalent to what Goldman’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein would have pocketed in one week in 2007, when he earned $68 million.
Chilton was the sole dissenter on a 3-1 vote to fine Goldman.
CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler, who worked at Goldman Sachs for 18 years, recused himself from the case.
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