The Justice Department has announced it will not bring criminal charges against the financial giant Goldman Sachs or any of its employees for improper trading of subprime mortgages during the financial crisis. A comprehensive Senate report had called for an investigation of Goldman in April 2011 after finding the firm had exploited unsuspecting clients by unloading subprime loans. Goldman had aggressively marketed mortgage investments to clients at the same time that the firm was betting against them. The actions helped Goldman inflate the housing bubble and then make huge profits off the market’s collapse. But on Thursday, after a more than year-long investigation of its own, the Justice Department issued an unsigned statement announcing: "Based on the law and evidence as they exist at this time, there is not a viable basis to bring a criminal prosecution with respect to Goldman Sachs or its employees in regard to the allegations set forth in the [Senate] report." The Securities and Exchange Commission also announced Thursday it’s abandoned its probe of Goldman Sach’s dealings in some $1.3 billion of subprime mortage securities.
--writing found on Democracy Now!
