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These charges are 99% politically motivated. I am not a fan of Goldman Sach in terms of them adding value to our economy compared to companies that make real products or provide real services. Goldman to me is like "the house" a place were high rollers go to gamble. Goldman, as "the house" always gets their cut and on every bet there is a winner and a loser. Those that engage Goldman on one side or the other are typically sophisticated investors/speculators/Etc. Goldman is generally not involved in commercial consumer transactions for the general public. What we have is our government through the SEC attempting to protect billion dollar investors from each other, while they gamble. I would rather have our government focused on real fraud and abusive practices that iare perpetrated on real regular people every day. For example today thousands of elderly people are being sold annuities with extreme high fees, in accounts with extremely high fees totally inappropriate for their needs by incompetent and or corrupt so called financial advisers.
Goldman was able to profit from the "bailout", so instead of the government admitting the "bailout" was the wrong thing to do and that they got embarrassed, they make a case where there really is no case. It simply shows that if the government has you in their cross-hairs, they are going to get you one way or the other. Goldman lost $90 million of their money on the deal and pocketed $15 million in fees, that alone should be enough to show Goldman had no intent to defraud and that there could have been an up side to the instrument in question.
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This is simply not true. Goldman Sachs was "advising" their customers to purchase stocks that they themselves were betting against.
Put simply: They advise their customers to buy stock A. They know pretty certain that stock A is a bad stock, but by getting their customers to buy the stock it will artificially inflate. They take futures out on the stock betting that it will drop. When the stock drops (because it's a bad stock and they knew it), the customers lose money and Goldman Sachs still makes money.
The last time this happened in Baseball an entire team was blacklisted, Shoeless Joe Jackson will probably never be in the Hall of Fame because of it. That was for a couple of hundred dollars.... this is for BILLIONS.
This is politically convenient to go after them but it doesn't mean it's not 100% fraud.