Buffett Defends Goldman; Berkshire Posts Profit
By SCOTT PATTERSON And ERIK HOLM
OMAHA, Neb.—Warren Buffett offered a vigorous defense of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. at Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s annual meeting Saturday, saying the firm hadn't engaged in improper activity.
Goldman has been reeling from Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that the bank had engaged in fraudulent activities in relation to a mortgage deal called Abacus. Goldman says it did nothing wrong.
His comments offer a powerful vote of confidence in Goldman, which has seen its shares slide since the SEC announced the investigation on April 16. Goldman's shares fell 9.4% on Friday after it emerged that the Manhattan district attorney's office was conducting a preliminary criminal probe into its mortgage-trading activities.
"We have had a lot of very satisfactory transactions with Goldman Sachs," Mr. Buffett said.
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8251528Goldman didn't tell SEC about mortgage moves for monthsBy Greg Gordon and Chris Adams | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — In December 2006, Goldman Sachs embarked on a frantic effort to shed billions of dollars in risky mortgage securities and purchase exotic insurance to protect itself against what it had concluded could be the collapse of America's housing market.
Yet for nine months, until Sept. 20, 2007, the Wall Street giant didn't disclose its actions in key filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in telephone conferences with analysts or in its press releases.A McClatchy review of hundreds of pages of subpoenaed company records released by a Senate panel Tuesday, as well as Goldman's SEC filings, has revealed how closely the company guarded its secret exit plan.
Goldman's failure to tell the investors who bought its risky mortgage securities that it had made an array of wagers against housing is at the heart of the furor now enveloping the nation's premier investment house, the only major Wall Street firm to exit the subprime mortgage market with minimal damage.
By the time Goldman finally began to divulge its strategies to the SEC, credit markets were freezing up and the investment bank was well on its way to making billions of dollars in revenue from its negative bets, known in the industry as "shorts."
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http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/30/93252/goldman-sought-to-shed-risky-mortgage.html