Goldman Sachs Group Inc. had a clear strategy of shorting the collapsing mortgage market and made $3.7 billion through the tactic, Senate investigators said, setting up a showdown with Goldman executives testifying before a Senate subcommittee Tuesday.
Goodness, Head Vampire Squid Lloyd Blankfein had best be careful he doesn’t – inadvertently of course – tell a fib or two while under oath. Because that would be a criminal offense and he has already assured us that Goldman does “God’s work.” And fibbing is a sin, as well as being an indictable offense
Goldman CDO called “one shitty deal” by their head of sales and trading in email. The squid of course shorted it after foisting it off on the rubes. The CDO lost 80% of its value in five months.
Zero Hedge thoughtfully rips to shreds Blankfein’s prepared testimony for tomorrow, pointing out the multiple lies and evasions.
IMO, Goldman will be so buried by lawsuits and indictments in the coming months that they will become a pale shadow of themselves and perhaps cease to exist. Hey, it happened to Enron, Arthur Anderson, and Lehman. Let’s move against the other investment banks too. They are parasites, nothing more.
Even Jim Cramer thinks Goldman is in deep trouble, opining that their top management may be fired plus a $2-3 billion fine. He used to work for Goldman and has been one of their biggest and most craven apologists. So, this is an illuminating change indeed.
“What makes this worse than most situations is that it’s entirely possible this young guy, who’s now holding the whole firm hostage, Fabrice Tourre – it’s entirely possible that he sold it fraudulently,” Cramer said. “If he did, then Goldman has no defense. So, what I would emphasize at this particular moment is that this guy is way too powerful. The hearings are going to go badly. Goldman knew they were going to have a Wells Notice, knew they were going to get prosecuted. They didn’t reveal it. It was totally material. Again they did that wrong.”
Sue, who is a CPA and a Certified Fraud Examiner says, not disclosing a coming Well Notice is “huge.”