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Is Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein a Liar?

By Larry Doyle on November 19, 2009 at 9:00 AM in AIG, Current Affairs, Economy, Sense on Cents (Larry Doyle blog)

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein

On Tuesday, I wrote “Just How Sorry Is Goldman Sachs?” in response to a blanket, unspecified, and unsolicited apology put forth by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein. In my commentary, I asserted:

Wait a second. Blankfein admits that Goldman participated in activities that led to the crisis? Get Lloyd back in here and ask him for specifics.

In an attempt to probe as to Goldman’s culpability, I inquired:

What do you think Blankfein was referring to when he stated that Goldman “participated in things that were clearly wrong”? I’ll get the ball rolling with a few possibilities:

1. Manipulated the equity markets via computer programs connected with high frequency trading.

2. Ran over Tim Geithner in the settlement of open positions with AIG.

3. Facilitated insider trading on behalf of hedge funds.

4. Intentionally misled lesser prioritized clients via trading huddles.

5. Abused privileged information provided by former Goldman execs now in government positions.

6. All of the above.

7. Other . . . please share your opinions.

Yesterday we learn the answer is most likely choice # 2. It appears that Lloyd Blankfein would like forgiveness for the aggressive posture it took with Uncle Sam in the process of settling its exposure with AIG. Recall that Blankfein has repeatedly asserted that whether AIG went down or not was not meaningful to Goldman Sachs because Goldman had secured collateral from AIG to cover its exposure.

Does Lloyd regret making those strong and bold assertions? Is he apologizing for these statements? Why would he apologize? Did he intentionally misrepresent Goldman’s position? Did he lie? The Wall Street Journal provides compelling evidence that he did just that. The WSJ writes, Report Rebuts Goldman Claim on AIG:

For more than a year, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has maintained that it wouldn’t have suffered material losses had the government allowed one of its major trading partners, American International Group Inc., to collapse.

A government report throws cold water on that claim.

Goldman was among the largest beneficiaries of a decision by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to bail out insurer AIG in September 2008 at the height of the financial crisis. The Fed agreed to pay Goldman and 15 other banks, in full, for $62 billion of insurance contracts they had with AIG to protect against price drops of mortgage securities they held.

The report, issued this week by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, comes amid controversy over whether the government unfairly helped out big banks in its bailout of AIG. The government auditor’s report broadly found that the New York Fed left itself little room in negotiating with the banks for a better deal for taxpayers.

Goldman’s trading position with AIG centered on $22.1 billion of such insurance the firm had purchased from AIG. In a separate series of trades, Goldman itself had sold protection against losses on the same securities to other trading firms.

The problem for Goldman: If AIG collapsed and markets continued to swoon, Goldman would have had to make payments to the other trading firms and been unable to collect on protection it had bought from AIG.

While spokesmen for Goldman may try to spin Blankfein’s previous statements of Goldman being hedged against an AIG default, it does not take a brain surgeon to tie Blankfein’s apology on Tuesday to the recently released WSJ story. Professional courtesy in the financial industry compels journalists to share articles, especially negative coverage, with selected parties prior to its release. Do not think for a second that Blankfein was not aware of the WSJ article. While some within the industry may look at Blankfein’s statements about Goldman being protected from an AIG default as some semblance of harmless obfuscation, from where I come, we call it lying.

Goldman took the American taxpayer to the hoop in the process. When does Blankfein want to make proper restitution? Keep your apology. Give the taxpayer their money back. Get Geithner in here as well, as he facilitated this transfer and allowed the lie to perpetuate.

If Blankfein lied about this situation, the question begs as to what other lies or half-truths he has spoken.

What do you think?

Galt goes to Hollywood

Perhaps the “boycott” of Jim Carey was premature after all? Just kidding, Larry (Johnson).
oowawa

Larry, you’re such a gentleman, discussing Blankfein and GS in such calm language. As for your “choices,” I choose #1, for an activity that manipulates the markets every blessed trading day:

1–Manipulated the equity markets via computer programs connected with high frequency trading.

But I am sure that “all of the above” is also a winner. Karl Denninger, whose rhetoric is not as polite as yours, begins his article on GS-Blankfein with the heading “Lying Sack of Dog Squeeze, Blankfein,” and concludes it with “Have a nice day jackass and may you burn in hell.”

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1636-Lying-Sack-Of-Dog-Squeeze-Blankfein.html
FrenchNail

What do I think about GS? Please Larry do not ask. I don’t want to encounter Spamy’s wrath again….

GS is definitly guilty of (at least) all 6 sins you listed. As it did not take a genious to know for sure they were lying in denying #2, they are so obviously guilty of #1.

And now GS just announced they want to “help” small business. Who are they kidding? The sheer mention of the idea is offensive.

By the way, I have a idea of grassroot revolt. Rather than not paying our taxes, which is contraversial and could get you in a lot of trouble, why not withdrawing all one’s funds from one’s 401K?

I believe that penalties would probably be offset by the losses coming in the near future, and depleting Wall Street en masse would definitely starve the beast. What say you?
Surfered

LLLOYD’S PRAYER:
Our Chairman,
Who art at Goldman,
Blankfein by thy name.
The rally’s come. God’s work be done
On Earth as there’s no fear of correction.
Give us this day our daily gains,
And bankrupt our competitors
As you taught Lehman and Bear their lessons.
And bring us not under indictment.
For thine is the Treasury,
The House and the Senate
Forever and ever.
Goldman.
Galt goes to Hollywood

You forget the “Amen.”
http://www.sonicninjakitty.wordpress.com Sonic Ninja Kitty

Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, has been named 2009 CEO of the Year and his firm, Goldman Sachs, as the best performing and best governed company in the Fortune 500

LOL!!!! This is from the Boardroom Leader’s Forum sponsored by directorship dot com. Truth is stranger than fiction!

I’d go with your assessment, LD.
AF catfish

I like the way this headline puts it: Blankfein: We Were Dicks, We Admit It
Patience

Ditto oowawa — I could choke on the bad language that can’t be expressed (yet this story elicits).

We’re victims of the great Fleecing of America and are seemingly powerless to do anything about it.

BTW, why is Madoff in jail and not some of these other %&#@ing crooks? Does a victim have to live in Palm Beach and/or Manhattan before justice is served?
Right on the Left Coast

Here’s a couple for your #7, if not already implied in your others…Thier ratings arm was systematically downgrading other financial institutions while their investment arm was shorting all those stocks.

Oh, and they were brokering derivitives they knew were crap and then investing in their decline over at AIG.

In many ways, they were pushing the market in a negative direction and then investing in that negative result. They claim coincidence. I highly doubt it.