Hillary didn't say a word. Why would she. She gladly takes their money....
No consequences, no justice in Goldman Sachs settlement
BY PHIL ANGELIDES
Special to The Bee
The U.S. Department of Justice last week announced with great fanfare a settlement under which Goldman Sachs would ostensibly pay out more than $5 billion for misconduct related to its sales of mortgage securities to investors in the run up to the 2008 financial crisis.
It’s now clear from a review of the settlement that Goldman Sachs likely will pay much less in penalties than the Justice Department claims, due to special credits included in the deal and, unbelievably, tax deductions Goldman Sachs will receive for payments it makes under the settlement.
Disturbing as this may be, what’s most troubling is that this settlement agreement – like previous deals between the Justice Department and big financial institutions – contains no consequences for the executives who drove or condoned wrongdoing. As a result, it will not deter future financial lawbreaking and will further undermine the public’s faith in the fairness of our legal system.
In September 2010, at a public hearing held in Sacramento, the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission released key evidence it had obtained that showed that major financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, included significant numbers of clearly defective loans in mortgage securities they were peddling to investors and then misled investors about the quality of loans in those securities.
