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A Senate panel has concluded that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. profited from the financial crisis by betting billions against the subprime mortgage market, then deceived investors and Congress about the firm’s conduct.
Some of the findings in the report by the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will be referred to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible criminal or civil action, said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the panel’s chairman.
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The giant investment bank was just one focus of the subcommittee’s probe into Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis.
The 639-page report based on internal memos, emails and interviews with employees of financial firms and regulators casts broad blame, saying the crisis was caused by “conflicts of interest, heedless risk-taking and failures of federal oversight.” Among the culprits cited by the panel are Washington Mutual, a major mortgage lender that failed in 2008, as well as the Office of Thrift Supervision, a federal bank regulator, and credit rating firms. Asked if he was disappointed that no Wall Street figures had gone to jail in connection with the crisis, Levin responded, “There’s still time.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-crisis-probe-20110414,0,6709903.story
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