Tuesday, April 20
Things are heating up.
Daily Finance: Goldman Sachs Earnings Double to $3.5 Billion as Firm Faces SEC Suit
Embattled Goldman Sachs (GS) said Tuesday that thanks to its trading and investing prowess, its first-quarter profit doubled to $3.5 billion, easily beating analysts’ expectations.
“Stop, step away from the collusion”
Fox News: Republicans Send Letter to SEC Questioning Timing of Goldman Sachs Lawsuit
Republicans sent a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday suggesting the agency’s civil lawsuit against financial giant Goldman Sachs has created “serious questions” about the SEC’s “independence and impartiality.”
In a letter penned to the SEC on Tuesday, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and eight others wondered whether politics have “unduly influenced” the decision to file the complaint, which comes as Senate Democrats push this week for a vote on a major overhaul of financial regulations.
New York Magazine: Wait: Might the SEC Have Had Some Ulterior Motive in Suing Goldman?
Now that the initial excitement has died down a little bit and a closer look at the SEC’s complaint against Goldman Sachs has been taken, some have started wondering about the party on the other side of this transaction. Other than the pursuit of justice for all the little people, what motives might the SEC have had in filing a big, public lawsuit against Goldman Sachs?
Zachary Goldfarb drives the markets.
WaPo: SEC sued Goldman Sachs to break an impasse
For months, Goldman Sachs and the Securities and Exchange Commission had been involved in secret talks over allegations that the Wall Street bank defrauded customers in selling them investments designed to fail.
Then, after a crucial meeting last month between lawyers for Goldman and the SEC, the agency came to a fork in the road. Even after SEC lawyers had told Goldman in writing they were prepared to file a federal suit, the firm gave no ground, declining to ask for a settlement, according to three people familiar with the case. The agency could prolong negotiations in hopes of reaching a deal Goldman would accept, as the SEC had often done in previous cases, or take the bank to court.
Endorsing the recommendation of investigators, the SEC’s five-member commission voted 3 to 2 to proceed with the civil suit, taking a high-stakes gamble that pits Wall Street’s top regulator against its most storied bank. The case, filed Friday, has provoked a counteroffensive from Goldman, which says it was blindsided by the suit. Goldman’s defenders are suggesting that the suit may have been designed to help make the case for the Obama administration’s push this month for legislation to overhaul financial regulation.
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