Senate Hits Goldman With New Charges

As Capitol Hill prepares to hear testimony from Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and “Fabulous” Fabrice Tourre, the only individual charged in the SEC’s fraud case, the list of questions they will face seems to be getting longer. Senate investigators claimed Monday that Goldman created a series of intricate deals to squeeze maximum profit out of the home-mortgage crisis that crippled so many of its competitors. (Up until now, the SEC had only pointed to one deal.) “The evidence shows that Goldman repeatedly put its own interests and profits ahead of the interests of its clients,” said Carl Levin, the Michigan Democrat heading the Senate committee. Yet Blankfein is expected to say Tuesday that Goldman did not consistently short the mortgage market as he tries to explain the firm’s actions.