Subpoena

Senate Probes Banks for Fraud

Goldman, Deutsche Bank mortgage trades targeted.

They can run (or, rake in $3 billion in three months) but they can't hide. A Senate panel has subpoenaed financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, seeking evidence of fraud in last year's mortgage-market meltdown, sources tell The Wall Street Journal. The congressional investigation is focusing on whether emails and other internal communications reveal that bankers privately doubted whether the mortgage-related securities they were facilitating were as sound as their public reports suggested. Washington Mutual, now largely owned by J.P. Morgan Chase, has also been subpoenaed. The investigation is the latest in a series of moves by Congress to examine the roots of the economic meltdown. Spokesmen from the banks have yet to comment.