SHOCK: Goldman Sachs Fined Half A Billion By S.E.C.
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Business, Economy, Law, Money, Wall Street
The title says it all, but here’s a bit more detail…
Goldman Sachs has agreed to pay $550 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission, one of the largest penalties ever paid by a Wall Street firm, to settle charges of securities fraud linked to mortgage investments.The S.E.C. filed a lawsuit against Goldman in April, accusing the bank of securities fraud. The settlement came just days before Goldman is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings.
Under the terms of the deal, Goldman will pay $300 million in fines to the Treasury Department, with the rest serving as restitution to investors in the mortgage-linked security. Goldman will not admit wrongdoing, though it will admit that its marketing materials for the investment “contained incomplete information.”
Haha, yeah, it contained incomplete information. Like, “this investment’s goal is to turn you upside down and watch the money fall out of your pockets and into our hands.”
And here’s more from the S.E.C.’s director of enforcement, Robert Khuzami…
“Half a billion dollars is the largest penalty ever assessed against a financial services firm in the history of the S.E.C.,” Mr. Khuzami said in a statement. “This settlement is a stark lesson to Wall Street firms that no product is too complex, and no investor too sophisticated, to avoid a heavy price if a firm violates the fundamental principles of honest treatment and fair dealing.”
Is it bad that this has me smiling ear to ear?
I mean, with the financial regulations bill being passed today and this decision coming day, there’s obviously a new sheriff in town who’s trying to make sure that what went down in 2008 (and the years leading up to the meltdown) will never happen again.
And yes, businesses are crying foul, but meanwhile they’re sitting on record cash hordes, so their complaints ring pretty hollow to me.
Long story short, Goldman Sachs got what they deserved.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 and is filed under Business, Economy, Law, Money, Wall Street. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 15th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Don’t worry, it’ll be overturned in court.
July 15th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
.1 percent — that is .1 percent of GS net worth.
You may be laughing at at GS, but they are laughing at all the rest of us after this “piddly” little fine.
July 15th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
To gerryf’s point – On a flat day in the market – Goldman Sachs shares were up 4.4% at the end of the day on the rumors of the settlement, then up an additional 5.7% in the aftermarket when the settlement was announced. Tonight Goldman Sachs shareholders and management are smiling ear to ear. [LINK]
EDIT: – Back of the envelope calculation – The company has a market cap of $74B – so up 10% or so on the day – the value of the company increased by about $7 billion on this announcement. Just sayin…
July 16th, 2010 at 8:42 am
yeah GS definitely got the better end of this deal.