I remember when the crash hit and Goldman gave its employees a bonus and moved overseas because there was no more money to be made here. Then they bilked Greece, Italy, and who knows what other nations for high interest loans as they were forced to adopt austerity measures to pay for them. The Fall of the Octopus Empire is something that many have dreamed about for a long time and cannot come soon enough. IMHO
1
No candidate for political office should take a penny from Goldman. And if they do, the voters should know about it so they can be informed and not vote for that candidate.
2
The biggest distortion in the US economy is the proportion that is involved in financial services as opposed to the proportion involved in real value-added wealth creation. When the best and brightest end up on Wall Street -- mostly a giant, crooked, barely-regulated, zero-sum casino -- rather than businesses like manufacturing that actually create new wealth, we are in trouble.
8
@Alastair Gordon It’s not all like that but mostly. Also, that wasn’t it’s original mission. It has just become that because of a number of convergent causes the most significant being corrupt greed.
1
If it involves making money G-S is always in , always . Rules, ethics who cares, just don't get caught.
2
Disallow deductability of legal fees when corporations and their employess are convicted.. Pierce the corporate veil of immunity for officers and directors who commit financial crimes.
You cannot sent a corporation to jail. When convicted,seize corporate assets as is done in drug crimes to satisfy fines large enough to defer these crimes. Restore effective government regulation of the banks and financial services industry. Criminalize white collar crime and make senior officers proven to be complicit guilty of conspiracy. Finally, create a regulatory agency sufficiently large and well financed to effectively regulate crime on this scale. If I must pay registration and license fees to drive , let these corporations pay an annual dedicated tax to support their regulation by government.
Will these things happen? Doubtful. How much did Goldman Sachs donate to Republican and Democrat political parties and individual campaigns since 2008? How many cases of financial crimes have been prosecuted? Q.E.D.
5
Ethical banking/bankers, yeah, right. Up there with honest lawyers and car salesmen. Stealing money out of other people's pockets should not be considered a legal occupation.
Instead of using guns they use pen and ink to rob others.
2
@SB Not every lawyer is a thief. Some are dedicated professionals that do good work.
1
For many years Goldman was a great place to work--maybe still is--for support staff, secretaries and the like, at Christmas time, huge bonuses that were the envy at other firms. So that's a couple hundred ordinary people who benefited from their largesse. But I'd suspect that's about it in the humane department, it is, as we now know even more firmly, a predatory company.
What's happening in Malaysia is wonderful, not just the Goldman trouble, but even more so the reversal of Chinese development schemes, many of them detrimental to Malaysia's environment, and all of them predatory. With Chinese investment, you get the best that dictatorship coupled with predatory capitalism can offer. A huge loan to pay for ill-advised projects like dams. Your nation, be it in Africa, Latin America, or Asia, can never pay back the loan, so become vassals of the Chinese. China then helpfully sends in teams of engineers, maintenance staff, etc., so your countrymen won't have to trouble themselves over pesky distractions like getting jobs. It's like a visit from predatory wasps who make themselves at home and spy on your people for the home office while sucking all the juice out of your economy. Bravo Malaysia for seeing through this pernicious trend, and here's hoping some of the other countries will see through the offer, though I imagine huge payoffs to corrupt politicians in some third-world countries will keep them docile. The people will have to rise up against such governments.
9
Can anyone seriously believe that the intellectual value of the work performed would be worth $600 million? The idea that investment banks are entitled to a fixed percentage in fees is utter nonsense.
6
The rumbling you hear isn’t an earthquake. It’s John Whitehead turning in his grave…
What is going on with all the NYCity business men . They all fit the term culture of corruption. They and Trump must have attended the same college how to steal from the clients and renters and keep a straight face doing it. The catholics and the evangelicals did not get divine intervention when voting for Trump and it shows. What bothers me is none of their bishops or leaders are coming out daily and saying we don't support this behavior it is a deep sin and you won't get our vote. By not saying nothing really shows how fake your religions are and that is sad.
6
It is totally reasonable to assume, that any financial operation that has "contributed" so many individuals to our government is corrupt.
But if you doubt this, a bit of internet searching will show you that King Midas, is also the king of the Nolo Contendere plea.
And it is worth noting, that years ago, when Drexel Burnham was destroyed by our government, due to "junk bond king" Mike Milken's racketeering activities, there was a co-conspirator at Goldman Sachs who was also charged, but Goldman stands mightier than ever. Apparently, no dosage of Judicial Kryptonite is more powerful than government connections.
See Andrew Ross Sorkin's excellent 2010 article for more information:
https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/sorkin-a-crowd-with-pity-for-goldman/
1
Maybe they should hire McKinsey to help them operate....more efficiently.
5
Blankfien’s comments “rogue employees” are beginning to appear like Trump’s Tweets.
3
@Gordon Hastings Like my wife who works in that industry said, Blankfien is the rogue.
This criminal activity makes even Trump look good. If the future brings criminal jail time, bankers will expect Presidential pardon.
1
Just remember, that money belongs to everyone! It is the product of a nations productivity. Yet these high level theives steal with impunity because they share the spoils with the politicians. It’s all rather obvious.
2
After the 2008 Financial crisis i suggested that Goldman Sachs change its name to Goldman Sacks and Pillages to reflect the true nature of their business. Perhaps a stockholder will propose the change at their annual meeting.
5
I work in the Risk and Surveillance department for a major bank in the U.S. Every single time when something like this happens the bank's response is always "the scheme was the work of rogue employees". Let me tell you these rouge employees are not the exception. They are created by the system of the company and the culture within. When people are rewarded solely base on the money they bring into the bank, this is bond to happen. I guarantee you the upper management has a if not clear but rough idea of what they are doing the whole time.
11
So, let me see if I have this right.
First, Goldman is given a very light slap on the wrist for it's mammoth part in their already well-documented 2005-8 rip off of Americans to tune of over $5 billion US dollars...see link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/11/goldman-sachs-2008-financial-crisis-mortagage-backed-securities
Fast fwd to their latest pie in the sky scheme. Only this time, they smartened up (wink) and went after, not American, but Asian low hanging fruit to construct their fraud.
And yet, still, not one word about jail time. Or liquidation of assets for reparations to those hurt. Can someone please explain why GS is still in the banking business at all. Disgusting.
12
@RLCThe very thing that makes them grotesquely rich and the average joe poor is what shields them.
2
People get thrown in jail for stealing cash register money from convenience stores. If Goldman is allowed to settle and pays only a fine for crimes involving billions, that, in itself, is the bigger crime because it obliterates the idea of justice. There must be a trial and convictions and jail time.
12
‘Lloyd C. Blankfein, who stepped down as chief executive in October, met privately with Malaysian officials, including Mr. Low.’
How did you all get so far into the article without mentioning this? Talk about burying. For what reason? Maybe he thought he was backing the candidates that would give them and the company cover on both sides.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/goldman-sachs-contributions-2016-election-217962
7
In the end it has fallen on Malaysia to end Wall Street impunity. American law enforcement wouldn’t dare go after Goldman this aggressively. To date no one from Goldman has been sent to jail for defrauding American investors and causing the 2008 mortgage crisis.
11
I promise you, this is a drop in the bucked compared to what these geniuses have wracked up since they went public. Scratching your head? Think Paulson squared. There was a punk rock song that captured the ethos of fascism called Take The Skinheads Bowling. I’m thinking about a modern version that replaces “Skinheads” with Goldman Quants. Government Sachs, is a train wreck. Thank you Mr. Holder.
1
Maybe we should bail them out some more. There was some underhanded stuff going in with the AIG bailout, with Goldman Sachs not being forthcoming with info about what AIG provided them. $8.9b in question.
2
Ooh! Can we give them more taxpayer money in a few weeks when they’re circling the drain?? I heard they’re too big to fail.
5
Does Malaysia have extradition treaties with the USA?
If Canada can arrest a Chinese corporate owner (Huawei), on behalf of the pact with the USA, then hopefully Malaysia can ask for a few Americans to be sent to Malaysia for trial!
Of course, since the Big Banks and brokerage houses are friendly with Trump, I doubt this will happen!
3
Americans need to end their love affair with corrupt entities like GS.
7
@RCJCHC not ‘Americans’. Our political class.
Standard practice for “free market capitalism”; privatize profit, socialize loss.
10
GS is like John Gotti, so many allegations and nothing sticks, not to Blankfein not to anyone associated with this firm. They pay a small fine and then it's business as usual. Move on nothing to tell here.
5
GS will receive a $1B fine (2 months' profit) and move on to their next swindle. Business as usual folks.
7
Exhibit A: Corporate America, ladies and gents. This is us. This is what we don’t jail. This.
5
Goldman Sacks senior leadership should have been indicted prosecuted and sent to prison for their corrupt cowardly crony capitalist corporate plutocrat oligarch fraudulent incompetent duplicity in the 2008 depression. Bad luck to these barbarian organized crime pirates would be justice for everyone else.
6
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
― Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850), French economist
12
GS states these developments: “do not affect our ability to conduct our current business globally.” Nor ethically or morally. Because @GS, those words are not in our dictionary. P/S...one of the headlines & excerpts in the newsletter distributed by GS to former employees - on the day charges were announced, no less - “Lloyd Blankfein on Legacy: LCB: I think one of the big takeaways for us was that while the firm did well in managing our risks and surviving the existential phase of the crisis, we had to deal with reputational issues. For our part, we went through a period of self-examination and decided we had to make sure our customers and clients saw us as more client friendly.” Um, irony, or is it joke?, meet Blankfein...
3
If I were a GS executive I'd be very nervous about international travel. If it's good for a Huawei goose to be arrested for American crimes while traveling through a third country, it certainly ought to also be good for Goldman's gander.
5
@Jim S. And before he took control over the Treasury, didn't Mnuchin make the Wolf of Wall Street a denominator for Mr. Bigstuff? Is this a revolving door or a back channel? So refresh my memory: WHY didn't Hank Paulsen like Lehman Brothers? Where was Timothy Geithner all this time? Main Street? Too big to fail?
3
@Jim S. And before he took control over the Treasury, didn't Mnuchin make the Wolf of Wall Street a denominator for Mr. Bigstuff? Is this a revolving door or a back channel?
It’s unfortunate that we have an economic system that rewards unethical and over the top greed. If these are our best and brightest it seems to be a waste of talent. Wouldn’t it be better if we had a system that rewards people for contributing to our society rather than just their own personal enrichment.
12
GS has gotten away with financial murder for decades, whether by helping Greece to conceal its debts from the E.U., or by stabbing Lehman Bros in the back in 2008.
But since so many ex-GS partners execute so many key posts in the U.S. Government the company itself has ensured (until now) its immunity from prosecution.
I never realised the U.S. and.my country were so similar.
41
No change in behavior despite having helped crash the world economy in 2007-2008. Could it be the result of the weak-kneed response by the U.S. government to white collar crimes in the banking and finance industry? No individuals held accountable. No takeover of any banks. The Obama Administration was worried that any such action would "weaken" the economy. So, instead they punted and perpetuated the crisis by doing practically nothing to correct the system. I know, the Republicans would have made it even worse by further weakening any oversight. Get ready for the next crisis.
27
Goldman has “fallen far short of any standard,” Mr. Thomas said. “They have to be held accountable.”
What is the standard when you're dealing with corrupt politicians in positions of power who can remove or create regulations with the swipe of a pen?
I have no doubt of Goldman's corruption and guilt. It's decidedly a two way street. Since our own SC has allowed unlimited corporate money into politics that two way street is paved with gold.
17
Goldman has such influencial “friends” among both Republican and Democratic politicians that this scandal will probably only be a small bump in the road for them. Unfortunately we are a country where tough laws are seldom truly enforced against the powerful and entrenched.
30
Goldman Sachs has attracted the best and brightest minds for decades. Like
many of its peers it s behavior often walks right up to the edge of legality and rarely right past it. But it does happen.
The financial worlds sandbox is ultimately backed up by us, US Taxpayers. And it needs a lesson that
it never really learned in 2008. Someone huge, important and powerful needs to go.
Goldman has done extraordinary work for plenty of "clean" clients and likewise for in my opinion too many "dirty' ones.
Virtually everyone at Goldman is talented enough to work elsewhere.
It's actions compared to Arthur Anderson are much more malevolent.
Why not just indict the whole firm and orderly wind it down? We keep hearing the same kinds of stories from our "best"
bankers over and over. It enough!
28
What I see is somebody over-promoted the facts in a Malaysian fund run by GS and GS in turn grabbed way too high a fee from the Malaysian government for doing this. What's wrong here? Where's the beef? As most comments have shown, this is just business as usual for GS. The big problem remains, how to make money dealing with governments like the one run by Mr. Razak.
2
I am shocked, simply shocked that Goldman would do anything like this.
[note Casablanca sarcasm]
The banks should have been broken up long ago.
19
@Bert Gold
...and, their principal executives publicaly neutered... followed by... for life.
1
Before this fraud was committed they must have had meetings discussing the consequences of it succeeded, if it broke even or if it had failure. This was not the first country that they did this to. An investigation should be conducted with respect to the possibility that more leaks of information with respect to additional countries that were defrauded in the past by GS. Look for additional lawsuits. It appears that GS was committing widespread fraud.
9
Oh, yes please, let's continue to remove those pesky regulations that prevent the banks from doing their business. It's so clear how well they can regulate themselves.
35
@Robert Maykut Indeed, the “Administrative State” is the real threat. It’s so obvious that regulation is the real crime that exposes us all to the threat of abuse of power. I would laugh at this absurd notion being pushed by the Phillip Hamburgers of the world but I’m too busy crying.
1
@JW Not the administrative state, but this administration is what requires some regulation. That will come in 2020 when we vote out the ilk in the WH - regulation at its best.
"Mr. Thomas said the government would seek more than $2.7 billion in penalties against Goldman."
Really? $2.7 billion. That's chump change for this operation. Current valuation is almost $65 billion.
22
Call me a psychic because I can see the future and it is nothing but sunny days for Goldman Sachs.
20
Why is that high level executives rarely get jail time? Remember when Wells Fargo defrauded their customers and I heard no high level executives went to prison.
If we did that, we would of surely received orange jumpsuits.
Just like Trump, nobody is above the law.
41
@Goahead
Don’t forget HSBC and Deutsche Bank who were involved with money laundering.
3
@Ralph Petrillo Right, and the real crime is Hillary’s emails. Give me a break!!!
It couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch than these most devious of Wall Street banksters.
Goldman was the pillar behind the fraud of selling worthless mortgage bundles, and yet were never punished. Republicans and Democrats alike protected their paymasters. No one went to jail. This scandal won’t change that as big fines will just roll out of Goldman’s treasure chest and be charged to their clients.
Newly watered down laws will continue to give these gods of greed free rein to do as they please while being applauded by the rich and even the middle class as shining examples of American Exceptionalism.
30
I am half-way through Matt Taibbi's "Divide". He is one of the few writers who is on to Goldman Sachs. They jailed bankers in Iceland after their financial meltdown. Why can't we?
51
@Carolyn
Because they have friends in high places and our weak kneed pols are in the pocket of these firms both repubs and dems.
5
...While thousands of *other* Americans are imprisoned for life without parole for nonviolent offenses like holding a ten-dollar bag of marijuana...
It's good to see Malaysia setting us a good example on holding big finance responsible.
According to the three-strikes law, isn't this at least Goldman Sachs' third felony?
38
@Andrew
Malaysia has an extradition treaty with the USA for certain criminal activities.**
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/104th-congress/executive-report/30/1**
We'll see now if Trump will stop any attempt to send Goldman Sacks executives to stand trial there, or if he won't!!!
2
Whenever there’s financial crisis anywhere, Goldman Sachs is always involved somehow.
20
I have delt with bankers in the business world and found them to be wolves in sheep’s clothing.
I’m not holding my breath that the significant players will see jail time.
9
That’s what happens when you keep getting slaps on the wrist and nobody goes to jail: crime persists.
21
The parallels between Goldman Sachs and McKinsey are uncanny. Both companies have checked their conscience and moral compass at the door when entering the orbit of these lucrative mandates on behalf of autocrats and kleptocrats and assisting them in suppressing their people and looting state assets (these two functions are obviously correlated). When I challenge people in those and similar companies (including lobbyists), I usually receive the reply that others are far worse, and that at least they don't deal in weapons and drugs. Quite the standard! How proud their parents must be.
15
Most Americans in their mid-thirties and older have vivid memories of the financial crisis of 2008 and Lloyd C. Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, apologizing publicly for the company’s shady practices which cost local governments and taxpayers billions of dollars, bringing financial hardship to households across the country.
Blankfein played down the fact that during the sale of worthless monetized mortgage products, Goldman Sachs earned billions by its conduct then.
We flash forward to 2018 and the Malaysia scandal, finding that Blankfein is still chairman of the most powerful part of Goldman, though no longer C.E.O. of the company.
Blankfein is still apologizing.
Now, just as he did just five years ago for Goldman’s practices in 2007 and 2008, Blankfein tries to cast Goldman Sachs more in the role of victim than villain.
One of the facts which grated on Americans in the follow-up to the 2008 crisis was the absence of any significant Wall Street wheeler-dealer sitting in a jail cell.
As the Malaysia scandal unravels, will we have learned any lesson? In 2019 will anyone from Goldman Sachs or any other brokerage house or bank be sitting in jail?
25
@Miroc
Stanley O'Neal was an incompetent C.E.O. of Merrill Lynch and, of course, never went to jail. In some ways, however, Lloyd Blankfein was worse, because he is much smarter than O'Neal and knew better.
1
As no politicians here are willing to do it, I'm just glad to know that someone somewhere has whatever it takes to confront these crooks at Goldman.
15
It is very interesting that goldman sachs never got any action against them for their liar mortgage debacle. Descriptions of how they partied in NYC after returning on their Gulfstream jets with bottles of Dom. The most telling ripoff was when they set up a Nunnery in Italy with terms that resulted in the loss of virtually all of the Nuns assets.
This debacle almost plunged the world into another depression. Remember how Freddy May and Mac directors made many millions of dollars after designing incentive programs for themselves. We are still being influenced by the thievery and yet no one in our government has ever done a thing about the debacle! Why - well apparently a lot of palms in our system were greased.
34
It's been 10 years since the financial crisis. No principals in the US banking system went to jail. Maybe Malaysia going after a few bank executives will be a start- just a start- to the accountability that we need in order to prevent such behavior in the future.
37
Two questions:
1. Did this investigation start during the Obama or Trump administration? It would be interesting to know?
2. How is Chris Christie, who is mentioned once in the article, involved?
13
Goldman was a big player in the last financial crisis, they destroyed and lied to a company that insured their instruments they caused many small time guys to lose their retirement savings they demanded big money from the government. they caused excessive money printing and made savors bail out the system by o interest on savings . Some of them should have gone through the prison system instead of a many taking terms running our financial systems. I saved for My senior years and looked at the street as a ponzi scheme not being in stocks cost me 200k that i had to spend. You bet I do not want a federal law against lynching. ,because they will do it again.
15
When will we learn? When will we put a stop to this behavior?
I suspect it will be too late.
13
@Me only when we have stringent campaign finance reform so these crooks can't buy our politicians
And never forget that for at least the last 20 years most of the key economic posts in every presidential administration have been given to Goldman execs.
75
@Green Tea
Let's not forget people freely elected two recent NJ governors: Corzine and Murphy
8
@Green Tea
true re ex-GS staff in natl govt. and their vampire-squid behavior hasn't changed a bit!
8
@gloria and why is Christie involved in this mess?
Once again we are talking about fines, big ones to be sure, but no one responsible for criminal charges. GS is lawyering up to protect itself not necessarily rank and file employees. Blankfein is such a perfect name for its Chairman.
35
So my concern is that Goldman takes down our economy the way Lieman Brothers did. Now, like then we hear about how great the economy is and then the bottom fell out. I sure hope I am wrong!!
11
I had a friend whose son was getting married for the third time. His father said to him, "Son, what don't you just buy her a house and skip the cost of the wedding and divorce." We don't miss Lehmens. We don't miss Drexel. We won't miss Goldmans. Apparently "too big" is a recipe for failure.
Is money is the root of all evil? It made General Flynn and Micheal Cohen strange bedfellows. Why do we continue to encourage bad behavior? Local investment and local banks won't bring Goldman sized windfalls but at least you have a chance of knowing your banker and employing people in your community. Imagine if some of those Goldman brains were working for us instead of themselves.
11
When....WHEN....will these thieves (I mean bankers) EVER be locked up?
All I see throughout the article is settlements, settlements and settlements.
59
Obama should have sent them to jail. That was his biggest failure. If someone else sends them to jail, who can sympathize with Goldman? They are criminals, and they are not the only ones.
55
@Covert
Some have alleged that the bankers weren't prosecuted because the government had too large a hand in the mortgage crisis.
12
@Covert From my perspective Obama was complicit with the bankers for not going after them---and I voted for him. All the politicians are on the payroll of Big Money. I wish the next Democratic House will have the courage and the morals to start getting rid of Citizens United and change the way elections are financed. Any one want to bet on it?
18
More “rogue employees.” And imagine, big boy Chris Christie is helping to defend Mr. Low. And we are informed that the current global business of GS will “not be affected.” Let’s watch closely how many of these “leaders” go to jail. Zero, I betcha, just like after the crisis and corruption and scams of a decade ago.
34
Of course.
Everything is as it seems to be.
What have we done to our culture that the most obviously immoral and illegal activities are conducted in plain sight? Did I read that right? 600 million raised for an obviously corrupt deal?
22
Are the actors in this no longer claiming that the almost a billion dollars looted from the fund was a gift from a Saudi Royal was it?
5
Any gov't legal action against GS this time - haven't there already been hundreds of useless 'settlements' by now? - should require A) complete dismantlement of that firm (as was done in 2002 with the crooked Arthur Andersen Accounting group) B) jail time + crippling personal fines for the banksters who run that company
28
Well, I'm glad that Goldman realizes that it may incur severe fines. The problem from a public policy perspective (and actually cleaning this mess up) is that its senior executives do not fear significant jail time. Why should they? Of course, in the S&L Crisis convictions in large-scale financial fraud case routinely led to jail time. Now, financial executives, who are responsible for flagrant criminal activities in their management spans, are not even prosecuted. What happened?
28
@TJS The Financial Services Modernization Act, 1999 or so happened. It allowed the banks to become national entities (as opposed to operating in three states), combine Investment and Commercial Banking, no longer have to hold a percentage of any security they originate until maturity, and repealed other parts of the depression era Bank Holding Acts.
The banks have since gotten so big and interconnected they cannot be punished and have significant leverage over our lawmakers and the economy. At least that's how I see it.
15
@TJS They paid off the politicians with election campaign contributions---both Democrats and Republicans. The system is rotten and no one has the courage to overturn it.
11
Of course they defrauded. That’s what Goldman does. What it’s always done. Not just penalties are called for. Individuals need to be jailed. Fat chance, eh?
63
There's a disconnect between your headline and the article. What crisis? This is business as usual at Goldman. A few weeks profit will be diverted to pay a slap-on-the-wrist fine and it will continue to be business as usual.
85
And just remember the Republicans feel the regulations put in place after the great recession went too far. Regulation is a bad thing. What it does is prevent companies like this from making money at others expense. Just like Trump yelling "Tariffs" and causing the loss of tens of billions of dollars in people's retirement. And Republicans stand by and ignore that too. No need for a consumer protection bureau. Just gets in the way of money making. We simply can't have that.
43
There are plenty of laws already in place to go after individuals. In many cases it's the government agency with big eyes on the financial prize of a big settlement. There are also legislators like Chuck Schumer who get big contributions from Wall Street firms.
9
@walking man
The Obama Administration was like a regulator on steroids. One employee working in compliance at a large multinational bank said the government couldn't even explain what many of the new regulations required. In other words, the Obama Administration's regulators issued regulations without a thought to how they would be executed.
4
I am getting really tired of hearing about these people. Maybe they can have the jail cell block adjoining the Trumps.
85
On Wall Street the big money is made by sailing as close as possible to illegality, and of course inevitably some "rogues" will stray over the line. This business model stinks and only prison at the very top will clear the stench.
108
This report makes it fairly evident that there are several major criminals in Goldman Sachs. Is anyone prepared to guess how many will end up in jail? My view is that they are rich enough so that none will be jailed.
54
Rolling Stone reporter Matt Taibbi famously (and accurately) described Goldman Sachs as "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." Well, folks, the giant vampire squid smelled money in Malaysia and did what it always does. Used to their freedom of action in the US, Goldman Sachs is no doubt surprised that business as usual should result in criminal charges by the Malaysian government. It's nice to know that--at least in some parts of the developed world--actions still have consequences. Crazy, right? Perhaps at trial Goldman Sachs' expensive array of defense attorneys can throw themselves upon the mercy of the court pleading, "But, your honor, we couldn't help ourselves. It's in our nature." Worth a shot.
93
Look what they did to Greece...
10
@Greg Gerner Agreed but guess what, the US is "prosecuting" GS.....not Malaysia???
In the 1980s, MBA candidates at Harvard Business School roughly went into three fields when they graduated: investment banking, consulting, and what was generally called "industry." Private equity and hedge funds weren't a thing yet, and Silicon Valley hadn't gone crazy with the dot.com bonanza that would come in the '90s.
The "really smart ones" went into investment banking and consulting generally, and they wanted to work for the best firms in those industries: Goldman and McKinsey. Especially once the Drexel Burnham insider trading scandal began in 1986, employers recruiting on campus made a point about talking about the high ethical standards of their firms, reinforced through cultures of teamwork and total dedication to their clients.
Yeah, right.
In fact, the truth was pretty much the opposite of all that. If you were looking back then for indicators of the problems ahead these firms could cause, you could probably see them, but most people weren't looking. And the press largely trumpeted how brilliant and powerful these firms were, especially as they spread American business prowess and principles around the globe.
The 30-year-olds of the '80s are the 60-year-olds of today. They're rich, but their wealth came at great expense to millions of Americans. The hollowing out of the US economy, the inequality they caused, and the help they greedily gave to governments who have always been US adversaries is their legacy. It's time to stop worshiping these firms.
142
@West Coaster It is time for Americans to stop worshipping Capitalism!!
22
@West Coaster
Where exactly did you get the idea that it was the 30-year olds back in the 80's that were in charge? Some of them may have made money, but are you saying that they didn't have bosses that were in charge and making even more than the workers did? The billionaire donors of today are a lot more than in their 60's.
9
financial service giants are no better--and probably worse--than big tech companies. they both follow the same, unalterable pattern: commit crimes (or some evil); obfuscate; get caught; apologize; suffer no serious consequences; repeat.
what ever happened to ethical leadership?
48
And unlike tech companies, financial giants like Goldman produce NOTHING.
54
The only way to kill the vampire squid and its brethren is with jail time. When I hear the word "settlement", though it may be in the billions, it's clearly just a get-out-of-jail-free card paid for by stockholders. Let Blankfein do "God's work" from a prison cell; he can use the solitude to come up with even more pithy ripostes. If Obama and Holder had done this, we might not have Trump right now. The citizenry might have concluded that laws were not just for the "little people".
155
"If Obama and Holder had done this, we might not have Trump right now. The citizenry might have concluded that laws were not just for the "little people"."
@stan continople It's a good point, though the article doesn't say whether the investigation began under Obama or Trump. If the latter, it would be just another totally legitimate piece of ammunition against the Dems' coziness with Goldman and Wall Street.
7
@stan continople
Exactly. Fines are just a rounding error for firms such as GS. Only jail time for executives -- not a few low-level scapegoats -- will change anything.
6
@stan continople
Malaysia has extradition treaties with the USA**
The USA asked Canada to extradite that Huawei cell phone executive for supposedly selling to Iran.
Perhaps now, Malaysia will ask for a few "questionable" executives at Goldman Sacks to be extradited to Malaysia to stand trial there!
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-report/104th-congress/executive-report/30/1**
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The "anything goes" Goldman Sachs culture persists. Criminal indictments against two bankers and the inquiry into malfeasance by Goldman Sachs in Malaysia suggest broad complicity. The notion that the Goldman Sachs bankers, who purportedly delivered $600 million in fees, ran a rogue operation in Malaysia fails the credibility sniff test. Profits are accounted for. Executives at the highest levels know the sources of income. There's an old adage "don't ask the questions if you can't stand the answers." Simply stated, greed prevailed over prudence and the executive bonus pool permitted many to share the plunder. The legal process will define corporate and individual culpability, which seems likely to exceed the lame penalties imposed on Wells Fargo for abusing the trust of their retail customers.
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