Lehman and Goldman: My Two New Videos At The Deal Magazine

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I’m sure you’re not surprised I have an opinion about Ernst & Young’s role in the Lehman Brothers failure or about the SEC’s suit for fraud against Goldman Sachs.

I was lured back to New York last week with the promise of a TV appearance to talk about Lehman.   That did not work out as planned.  The news channels were fixated on the Lehman hearings in the Committee on Financial Services, US House of Representatives, DC, Tuesday.

Instead, I  took advantage of the trip to tape some video footage for The Deal magazine, a publication that focuses on the business of mergers and acquisitions.

There’s a lot of footage, so I hope to see a few more clips on other topics soon.

Here’s me on…

Lehman Hearings: Who’s auditing the auditors?

“Why isn’t Ernst & Young testifying at the Lehman hearings today too?,” asks Francine McKenna, an accounting consultant who writes the blog re: The Auditors.

In other news today, Goldman Sachs’ Lloyd Blankfein, Fabrice Tourre, and other executives will testify before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Business Week: “Thomas Montag, the former head of sales and trading in the Americas at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., called a set of mortgage-linked investments sold by his firm “one shi**y deal,” according to an excerpt from internal e-mails released by Senate lawmakers.”

This is not good.

I’ve not been a huge fan of Goldman Sachs on this blog.  Mr. Blankfein seems horribly smug to me, they do things like allow their vendors (who they also own) to squeeze their workers on their premises.  And then there’s the strange saga of their dispute with AIG over CDS insurance while PwC stood by, thumbs in ears.

I’ve spoken to their spokesman, Lucas van Praag, and he seems a lot less stuffy and smug than others have accused him of being.

What can I say?  I like a guy who likes a stiff drink.

My take on what this means for additional litigation:

Goldman SEC charges to spark cases against others

The SEC’s fraud case against Goldman, Sachs will give people ideas about other primary dealers in similar deals, says accounting consultant Francine McKenna.



1 reply
  1. Umair
    Umair says:

    Hi Francine,

    Another great article by Francine.SEC has sent warning letters to 19 big banks in US to tell them whether they have also used accounting gimmick “Repo 105”.In the article you refer to “CDO”, it stands for “Collatoral Debt Obligation”.Correct me if i am wrong.This was a predatory treatment of innocent clients/average Joe(Person).

    One more point the inquiry by SEC on US Banks & Financial Institutions & Greek Bankruptcy fears have lead the other markets down with Wall Street,FTSE.Today in the morning trade in ASX(Australia) & Asian Markets.Fears of a double dip recession.

    It’s about time instead of having inquires,something solid needs to be done by US Senate which the whole world sees from industry to Wall Street/Nasdaq/Dow Jones…

    Thanks for such a nice article…

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