At a time when there is great focus on how justice is dependent on wealth and power, it is not surprising to see again a bank try to avoid being responsible for wrongdoing. Goldman Sachs employees were actively involved in a scheme in Malaysia that looted funds ($2.7 billion in fact) from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund. This scheme was facilitated by Goldman employees. As noted in the New York Times, “(t)he fund was meant to finance projects for the benefit of the people of Malaysia, but some of the cash went to buy luxury apartments, yachts, paintings and even finance the movie ‘The Wolf of Wall Street.'” Somehow fitting that a film on the bad behaviour on Wall Street was involved in this scheme.
For its work, Goldman earned $600 million in fees. The fines it is expected to pay in both Malaysia and the US are expected to be well in excess of that amount. And of course some of those fees were used to pay bonuses to Goldman staff. The CEO of Goldman has apologised for what occurred and is typically the case blames it on “rogue employees.”
As one digs deeper into the story as reported, it is clear that there are many connections between Goldman, the law firms involved and the individuals at the US government involved in determining the ultimate fine and plea from Goldman. Or course if it was a much more minor offence, the defendants would not have the advantage of those connections nor the funds to pay for expensive legal advice. So when the top of major banks speak about the need for social and economic justice, it only seems fair to ask them to abide by those same rules.
