Goldman Accused of Thwarting Financial Crisis Panel
By: The heads of the panel investigating the causes behind the financial crisis lambasted Goldman Sachs today, accusing the company of “deliberately and disruptively” refusing to cooperate with their investigation.
Phil Angelides, the chairman of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, said that while the overwhelming number of financial firms from which the FCIC has sought documents or information have complied, Goldman has not. Instead, Goldman has been “dumping” an overwhelming volume of documents on the FCIC, which has a staff of just over 50 people.
"We did not ask them to pull up a dump truck to our offices to dump a bunch of rubbish," Angelides said during a conference call following the announcement that the FCIC had sent Goldman a subpoena Friday.
The tone of both Angelides and FCIC Vice Chairman Bill Thomas was notably angry.
“We’re not going to let the American people be played for chumps here,” Angelides said. “We should not be forced to play 'Where’s Waldo' on behalf of the America people.”
“When we had Chairman Lloyd Blankfein testifying, he said Goldman was about market-making. Now it seems like it is also about mischief-making,” Thomas said.
Thomas said Goldman was deliberately delaying because it knows the FCIC must wrap up its investigation and deliver a report on the crisis at the end of the year. Angelides agreed, describing Goldman as making a “very deliberate effort to run out the clock.”
“They may have more to cover up than maybe we thought or they told us they did,” Thomas said when asked why Goldman would delay.
"We have been and continue to be committed to providing the FCIC with the information they have requested," Goldman Sachs said in a statement.
Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael Duvally told CNBC the firm has nothing to add to its earlier comment on the subpoena issued by the FCIC on Friday.
