Like many of his colleagues—notably his good friend Jay Clayton, most recently seen doing away with those pesky and unnecessary rules about conflicts of interest, whatever those are anyway, vis-à-vis auditing firms—Attorney General Bill Barr has gotten quite busy in the last few weeks. To be sure, he’s doing all that he can to ensure the next few months are not his last at the helm of the Justice Department, but just in case, he’s making sure as many Americans as possible die of COVID-19 during this fall spike, exacting vengeance on his and his boss’ enemies (while ignoring the much more serious crimes of their friends), racing to file a hastily-slapped together lawsuit against another, and making sure the president—who looks to be pretty hard up these days—doesn’t have another legal bill to pay.
Given all he’s got on his plate right now, he really doesn’t have the time—assuming he ever really had the inclination—to force the issue on the whole making-Goldman-Sachs-plead-guilty-to-a-crime-over-that-whole-massive-Malaysian-fraud-thing, because, really, who gives a shit about defrauded Malaysians anyway? Just sign on this dotted line, fork over 100,000 D.J. D-Sol social-distancing fines and he’ll make all of this go away before Elizabeth Warren or someone like her is A.G. and insists on the death penalty for Lloyd Blankfein or something, so that we can go back to the really important stuff like seizing and shredding mail-in ballots and dog-whistling.
The accord, part of an international action, will let the parent company avoid a U.S. criminal conviction, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing the confidential talks. The payment to the Justice Department is broadly in line with the bank’s prior reserves and analysts’ estimates.
This David Solomon is even better at negotiating favorable deals than he is at spinning.
In Singapore, authorities plan to levy a financial penalty and issue a warning with conditions, and if the company breaches them, Goldman Singapore could be prosecuted, people familiar the matter said.
One thing, though: The deal with the Justice Department’s not quite done yet, so you might want to shut Jan Hatzius up and stop taking steps towards expanding ballot access lest a certain someone gets wind of things and insists on expensively draining this particular swamp.
A “congressional Democratic majority would likely result in substantially more fiscal support. We expect that spending would increase the most under a Democratic sweep of the House, Senate and White House,” Hatzius wrote.
“This would likely include a stimulus package in Q1, followed by infrastructure and climate legislation,” he added….
Goldman Sachs also reiterated its finding that the boost to U.S. economic growth from fiscal stimulus favored by the Biden campaign would “outweigh the negative effects of tax increases, particularly in light of the fact that the increased tax revenue would go to funding new spending.”
Goldman Sachs Group Inc is giving staff a half-day of paid leave on Nov. 3 to ensure they have time to vote in the U.S. elections, according to a staff memo seen by Reuters on Monday.
Goldman Poised to Pay More Than $2 Billion in DOJ’s 1MDB Probe [Bloomberg]
Goldman Sachs say Democratic sweep would unleash ‘substantially’ more stimulus [CNBC]
Goldman Sachs gives staff half-day paid leave on U.S. election day [Reuters]
SEC Approves Changes to Ease Auditor-Independence Rules for Compliance, Audit Firms [WSJ]
U.S. to Accuse Google of Protecting Illegal Monopoly [NYT]
Donald Trump Has At Least $1 Billion In debt, More Than Twice The Amount He Suggested [Forbes]
Justice Dept. Says Trump’s Denial of Rape Accusation Was an Official Act [NYT]
Trump Demand Attorney General Barr Investigate Hunter Biden [Bloomberg]