Goldman's White House connections raise eyebrows

McClatchy ^ | April 21, 2010

[Bigtigermike]

WASHINGTON — While Goldman Sachs' lawyers negotiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission over potentially explosive civil fraud charges, Goldman's chief executive visited the White House at least four times.

White House logs show that Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein traveled to Washington for at least two events with President Barack Obama, whose 2008 presidential campaign received $994,795 in donations from Goldman's political action committee, its employees and their relatives. He also met twice with Obama's top economic adviser, Larry Summers.

No evidence has surfaced to suggest that Blankfein or any other Goldman executive raised the SEC case with the president or his aides. SEC Chairwoman Mary Schapiro said in a statement Wednesday that the SEC doesn't coordinate enforcement actions with the White House or other political bodies.

Meanwhile, however, Goldman is retaining former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig as a member of its legal team.

[Bigtigermike]

GOLDMAN BOSS VISITED WHITE HOUSE AT LEAST 4 TIMES.......While GOLDMAN SACHS lawyers negotiated with SEC over civil 'fraud charges'...

[Dansong]

I don't get it: If Obama was in bed with Goldman wouldn't the outrage be that the SEC is passing on charges? Or is it all a ruse: the crimes are real yet the sentence is a slap??

[Bigtigermike]

Some news people already said that it will be a slap.....it was setup to get Republicans to vote for the bill that will actually help Goldman Sachs with a permanent bailout fund!

[ikka]

It is all a song and dance to fool the rubes.

[classified]

Goldman the camelian Brokerage firm who has managed to weather the Financial collapse. Hmmm.... Part of the selective capitalist who will share the pie of success in the new world order of Obama’s regime only because they are part of the team!

[throwback]

It's like Barry said when questioned on the timing of this case yesterday, the SEC is completely independent and the WH is not interfering in the investigation. He didn't say they didn't tell the SEC when to initiate the investigation, though. Also the purchase of a link on Google to drive the curious to the WH regarding the case shows that they flipped the switch on the investigation. Of course GS is a partially own subsidiary of the democrat party and soon to become a wholly owned subsidiary after the reform, so the WH won't beat them up too bad.

[Tempest]

LOL!!! Grasping at straws.

A firm as massive and crooked as Goldmans has had an audience with any sitting president for the past 50+ years.

[Liz]

Our Gangster Government said "categorically" that the SEC never discussed fraud charges against Goldman Sachs with the White House in advance.

Heh. Betcha some of them WH birds know something......betcha they got a tweet from G/S (/snix). Mmmmmm...........now would be a good time for "someone" to leak snail mail, emails, phone records, that WH Gangster Government had with the SEC......... and/or Goldman in advance of the suit.

================================================

QUESTION What moves did Soros make in the four weeks before the fraud charges were filed to save his GS investments? The answer will tell you everything you need to know.

REFERENCE Man who broke the Bank of England, George Soros; 'at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro'
UK Mail Online ^ | 27th February 2010 | Karl West
A spokesman for Soros Fund Management said the legendary investor did not attend the dinner on February 8, but did not deny that his firm was represented. At the dinner, the speculators are said to have argued that the euro is likely to plunge in value to parity with the dollar.

The single currency has been under enormous pressure because of Greece's debt crisis, plus financial worries in Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland. But, it has also struggled because hedge funds have been placing huge bets on the currency's decline, which could make the speculators hundreds of millions of pounds.

The euro traded at $1.51 in December, but has since fallen to $1.34. Details of the secretive dinner emerged days after Mr Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management, warned in a newspaper article that the euro could 'fall apart' even if the European Union can agree a deal to shore up support for stricken Greece.

SOURCE Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1253791/Is-man-broke-Bank-England-George-Soros-centre-hedge-funds-betting-crisis-hit-euro.html#ixzz0gm hF5oqX (Excerpt)

REFERENCE The Depository Trust Company (DTC) is the world’s largest securities depository, holding nearly $19 trillion in assets for its Participants and their customers.... Last year, DTC processed over 164 million book-entry deliveries valued at more than $77 trillion.

The Federal Reserve Corporation, a/k/a The Federal Reserve System, is also a private company and is not an agency or department of our federal government. The Federal Reserve Board of Governors is listed, but they are not the owners. The Federal Reserve Board is nothing more than a liaison advisory panel between the owners and the Federal Government. The Federal Reserve mandates that the Depository Trust Company process every securities transaction in the US.

It’s no wonder that the Depository Trust Company (including the Participants Trust Company, now the Mortgage-Backed Securities Division of the Depository Trust Company) is owned by the same stockholders as the Federal Reserve System.

In other words, the Depository Trust Company is really just a ‘front’ or a division of the Federal Reserve System. “Depository Trust Company is 35.1% owned by the New York Stock Exchange on behalf of the Exchange’s members. It is operated by a separate management and has an independent board of directors. It is a limited purpose trust company and is a unit of the Federal Reserve.” - New York Stock Exchange, Inc.

If you’re not aware how the system works, you should visit or call a stock broker or bank and instruct them you want to purchase some shares of common stock or a small municipal bond, for example.

They will set up a brokerage account for you and act as your agent with full durable power of attorney (which you must legally sign over to them) to conduct business on your behalf, upon your buy or sell instructions. The broker will place your stock or bond purchase into their safekeeping under a “street name”.

The Depository Trust Company’s private holding company or street name, as shown on certificates is shown as either “CEDE and Company”, “Cede Company” or “Cede & Co”. The banks and brokers are merely custodians for their clients. By federal law (SEC), they cannot hold any assets in the customer’s name. The assets must be held in the name of Depository Trust Company’s holding company, CEDE & Co.

That’s how Depository Trust Company has more than $19 trillion dollars of assets in trust... or is it really in “trust” if the private Federal Reserve System is technically holding it in their “unknown” entity’s name?

Obviously, if stock and bond certificates you’ve purchased aren’t in your name, then the “holder” (the Federal Reserve System) could theoretically refuse to surrender them back to you. The Depository Trust Company owns that bond or stock, not you.

Rather than in your name, it’s registered (as the legal Registered Owner or agent) in their “street name”.....Cede & Company.

Cede & Co.
c/o The Depository Trust Company
7 Hanover Square
New York, New York 10004

George Soros and Quantum Partners. Cede & Co. is under:
- SOROS FUND MANAGEMENT LLC. in Delaware
- Quantum Industrial Partners LDC in Cayman Islands
- QIH Management Investor, L.P. in Delaware
- QIH Management, Inc. in Delaware
- Stanley F. Druckenmiller
- Duquesne Capital Management, L.L.C. in Pennsylvania
NOTE: Reuters recently reported that tiny Delaware surpasses Switzerland in financial secrecy.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Candidate Obama at fund-raiser April 9, 2007.
George Soros is seated to the right of the stairs. (Photo: Michael Edwards)

[CPT Clay]

Nah, the 11 former Goldman employees work at the White house and the million dollars that Goldman employee’s gave to Obama have nothing to do with anything.

[italianquaker]

I think this new odumbo scandal may have legs. Will he give back the million dollars in bribes who knows

[grayhog]

Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein has had his Neville Chamberlain moment and is now officially one of Obama’s useful idiots (to mix metaphors between the Nazi’s and Communists). All of Blankfein’s donations, lobbying and pleading didn’t help and Goldman is getting pounded because Obama has decided Goldman is more useful as the villain than as a contributor. Hopefully the rest of American industry has learned that you cannot negotiate or bribe yourself to good fortune with an economic terrorist like Obama.

Healthcare stocks are now getting pounded as they begin to report their earnings and are reducing their outlook because of how much Obamacare will cost them. Financial companies will have to do the same as Obama will get the Dodd bill through. Energy companies better look because they are next on the hit list with Cap and Trade.

[farlander]

Or the crimes are made up for political value. Remember, the guys on the other side of the deal were some of the most sophisticated investors out there - you think people like those didn’t do their due dilligence when buying 1B worth of CDO’s ? Oh, they sure look stupid now (like the rest of ‘em) but could they have been cheated so simply? Doubtful.

I don’t have love for Goldman but this just seems to shoddy of a case - hell even CNBC reported that the gov has testimony that contradicts 3/4 of their case! This is nothing but political theater.

[massgopguy]

Ask Gibbs about this.

[Vaduz]

Negotiated a deal you can’t refuse.You have a nice family.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Will he give back the million dollars in bribes who knows

Bloomberg says... about that:

Obama Doesn’t Intend to Give Back Goldman Campaign Donations

[RJS1950]

Of course he’s visiting the WH. A lot of the criminals formerly at GS are now at the WH.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Details on who gave to Obama:

Barack Obama (D) Top Contributors

[Deb]

Geez, Ex-Goldman chirman, Robert Rubin, gave Clinton $250,000 and got appointed Treasury Secretary. The new guy should get something.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From MW:

Meet the new Goldman derivatives business

**********************EXCERPT******************************

April 22, 2010, 12:01 a.m. EDT

By David Callaway, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Meet Goldman Sachs, international airline. No baggage fees; volcano proof; business class only.

That's about how easy it would be for Goldman Sachs Group Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!gs/quotes/nls/gs (GS 159.56, +0.63, +0.40%) to fly through the ash-cloud of loopholes an over-heated Congress is spitting up in its latest attempt to regulate the derivatives market. In its zeal to punish Wall Street for the financial crisis, Congress is now focused on the middle of the three most bearish ways to regulate banks.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Article referenced in article linked at post #19;

Spotlight on Goldman as commodities hearings begin

*************************EXCERPT*******************************

July 28, 2009, 3:17 p.m. EDT

Firm, first to benefit from exemptions 18 years ago, must now fight to keep them

By Moming Zhou, MarketWatch

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Goldman Sachs Group, already under fire for reaping record trading profits in the aftermath of the financial crisis, is now fighting to defend one of its biggest sources of revenue -- commodities trading -- with regulators considering setting limits on Wall Street speculators.

Representatives of the firm, along with those of other big investment banks, are scheduled to appear at a series of hearings held by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission starting Tuesday -- part of the Obama administration's biggest move yet to clamp down on commodities speculation, which has roiled the prices of everything from oil to corn and wheat in recent years.