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Goldman Sachs

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Goldman Sachs is one of the world's leading and most profitable investment banks. The firm was founded in 1869. Headquartered in New York, Goldman operates world-wide but especially in the leading financial centres i.e. New York, Frankfurt, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo.

It employed 19,476 people at the end of November 2003. Pre-tax earnings in the year to November 2003 were $4.445 billion. The CEO is Henry M. Paulson, Jr.

Goldmans is possessed of a distinctive mission statement or statement of business principles that is arguably one of the most thoughtful and impressive in the financial world (see below). Goldman's culture may be one of the secrets of its longevity and success.

Scandals involving Goldman-Sachs

Joyti De-Laurey

Joyti De-Laurey was recently convicted eleven to one by a UK jury for stealing more than £4m by forging cheques.

A spokesman for Goldman-Sachs described the thefts as "gross abuse of trust and an extremely unpleasant incident for all those affected". The Financial Times called her a "queen of deceit", Scott Mead, the executive whose signature De-Laurey forged, called her a "Picasso of con-men— she was brilliant". Another previous boss of hers, Ron Beller said she was "a very clever con artist". She also worked for Jennifer Beller.

Critics have suggested that the case has been over-stated, as forging cheques does not require exceptional intelligence. Also, claims that forgeries were exceptional are questionable as another witness to the case, Sophie Pemberton, who is another employee of Mead's, stated that Mead "never signed anything" and that she regularly forged his signature.


Misleading analysis of telecommunications companies

In a statement issued by William Donaldson, chairman of the US securities and exchange commission on October 31st 2003, he said Bear Stearns, CSFB, Goldman, Lehman, Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray, SSB and UBS Warburg (now known as UBS Securities) ("UBS") issued research reports that were not based on principles of fair dealing and good faith and did not provide a sound basis for evaluating facts, contained exaggerated or unwarranted claims about the covered companies, and/or contained opinions for which there were no reasonable bases in violation of New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") Rules 401, 472 and 476(a)(6), and NASD, Inc., Rules 2110 and 2210 as well as state ethics statutes.

An analyst, Craig Kloner, when asked what his three most important goals for 2000 were, said "to get more investment banking revenue". [1] [2]

The Financial Times called it "the worst financial scandal in a generation". Donaldson fined Goldman-Sachs US$110m, and the investment banks as a whole $1.4bn [3].


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See also

Financial regulation, Misleading financial analysis, Corporate crime, financial bubble


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