[lhuang]

The SEC alleges that GS committed fraud by not informing investors that the "3rd party objective manager" who cherry-picked the assets that were packaged in the CDO was at the same time betting against the very assets he picked.

That, and recorded conf calls show that GS analysts as trying to convince rating agencies to inflate the ratings of the underlying assets in the CDO.

[nearestneighbor]

> That, and recorded conf calls show that GS analysts as trying to convince rating agencies to inflate the ratings of the underlying assets in the CDO.

What happened to winking, nods and understanding looks on golf courses?

[byrneseyeview]

That's just plain stupid. If you're buying, don't count on the seller having your interests at heart.

That's part of Goldman's job. They want the transaction to happen; if they can get a good rating, they should. The entity that's responsible for making the rating agencies rate things well is... the rating agency.

[dandelany]

There is a massive difference between expecting the seller to have your best interest at heart, and expecting that the seller will give you accurate information regarding what product they are selling you.

The first is naivete. The second is Federal securities law.