Did a clever SEC bait Goldman Sachs into compounding its legal problems with the “Kiss of Death” message? Sam Antar at White Collar Fraud thinks so. By releasing the news on Friday the SEC may have suckered Goldman into a hasty press release which may now be used against them.
He also says Richard Simpson, the SEC lead counsel against Goldman, is a relentless and legendary “pit bull.” Antar should know. He is a convicted felon and former CFO of Crazy Eddie who now has a consulting business teaching about corporate crime. Simpson was the lead counsel in Crazy Eddie securities fraud prosecution. Sam Antar barely avoided going to prison, Eddie didn’t.
In any company, especially a company that is the size of Goldman Sachs, there are always some employees who bend the rules or break the law and end up getting a company in legal trouble. By circling the wagons around Fabrice Tourre, Goldman Sachs raised the ante from a single employee issue involving a certain corporate transaction to a corporate wide issue involving the entire company. A very dumb move!
The public relations people and attorneys representing Goldman Sachs will get rich as they suck the company dry with fees and lead them down the river. That’s what happened to the Antar clan at Crazy Eddie as Richard Simpson rightfully “deep-sixed” them too.
He ends his post with
My research on Goldman Sachs is a freebie for securities regulators and the public in order to help me get into heaven, though I doubt that I will ever get there anyway. I personally believe that some people at Goldman Sachs may end up joining me in hell.
The coming wave of CDO-Related lawsuits is going to be insane.
At issue is not whether Goldman would lose a civil case — at issue is reputational damage, and the opportunity for others who lost money to reason: well, if the SEC has grounds to sue, then so do we.
Germany prepares to sue Goldman.
UK plans special investigation of Goldman.
In my opinion, Goldman is going down. They have no friends left or even allies. They backstab anything within range, including clients. So why should anyone lift a finger for them. The number of lawsuits and prosecutions will be huge.
We need a Richard Whitney moment. He was head of NYSE in the 1930’s and convicted of embezzlement. When they put him on the train from Grand Central Station to Sing Sing prison, thousands came to watch.
His brother and family made good the difference, about a million dollars, which was a huge amount at the time. Apparently they possessed some concern about ethics and morality however quaint a concept that might seem to the amoral thugs infesting investment banks today. May they get to ponder that as they do their coming perp walks.
Do you think any of these mere countries will have the goods or the gumption to tear down any of the king-wannabes and kingmakers of capitalism? Some are saying they see signs of a legal Kabuki amongst the varied charges that may amount to nothing real being done in the end. Just curious if you think there is really a lot of there there?
Lots of those doing business with Goldman lost huge sums on these deals. You bet they’re going to sue. I think this has gone way past Kabuki. Plus it’s political now.
Goldman is wounded. And under their own rules, they get to be attacked now without mercy.
I am hoping this disease, justice, will begin to spread. The other companies don’t have to worry about GS falling, I guess, because we will get stuck with the bills in the end, won’t we?
what seems to have changed is the political component. GS isn’t been protected nearly as much now by government and politicians, who may be finding it now advantageous to attack Goldman.