Still Calling the Shots
Goldman Sachs has inundated the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission with data ” about five terabytes, equivalent to several billion printed pages ” and dragged its feet on answering detailed questions about derivatives securitization and other business activities, two panel members told reporter on a conference call.
“We did not ask them to pull up a dump truck to our offices and dump a bunch of rubbish.” the Panel Chairman added, “This has been a very deliberate effort over time to run out the clock.
–“Financial Panel Issues a Subpoena to Goldman Sachs“; The NY Times (6/7/2010)
No, I haven’t studied the minutiae of the financial reform package making its way through Congress now.
But when I read how Goldman Sachs is plainly thwarting the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission . . . . I don’t have to. (Its tactic, well-known to litigators: ‘the data dump.’)
If the Commission had any legal authority or political clout, it would slap Goldman with the equivalent of contempt of court sanctions.