From FT Alphaville:
23 years later…
The American Life radio show and the Pro Publica investigative journalism service set an interesting debate a-blaze last week, detailing the 46 hours of secret recordings undertaken by Carmen Segarra, a specialist hired (and subsequently fired) by the New York Fed.
The recordings have painted a vivid picture of regulatory dithering in the face of a rapacious Goldman Sachs as the bank sought to gain clearance for a share warehousing operation that would allow Spain’s Santander to sidestep European capital requirements.
Subsequence criticism has centred on the NY Fed’s apparent impotence in the face of Wall Street muscle. But is it more the case that Matt Taibbi has been right all along? Does the bank actively help clients dodge (if not break) the rules?
Let’s examine a largely forgotten example of Goldman’s past behaviour in London…
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Back in 1991, a reporter on the Panorama investigative team at the BBC exercised their public right to examine something called a 212 Register held at the corporate headquarters of a company called Maxwell Communications Corporation (MCC). The company was the main corporate vehicle of Robert Maxwell, the publisher who was soon to go missing off the side of his yacht, somewhere off the Canary Islands. The register contained all the formal replies to 212 notices sent out by the company — disclosure notices that required the beneficial owner of stock registered as an MCC shareholder to reveal themselves....MORE