Yesterday, in a stunning decision packed with Orwellian reverse speak, Judge Victor Marrero of the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (where cases against Wall Street firms are thrown out like penny candy by a carnival barker) dismissed claims against Goldman Sachs in a case so fraught with the appearance of corruption that it had commanded an investigation by the U. S. Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Plaintiffs in the case were investors in Hudson Mezzanine Funding 2006-1 and 2006-2, synthetic bets on toxic mortgages which Goldman sold to investors while making multi-billion-dollar bets for its own firm that the deals would fail.
In writing his decision to dismiss the claims by plaintiffs, the Judge actually acknowledged that employees of Goldman Sachs had called what they were selling to their customers ‘crap’ and ‘junk’ in internal emails that were introduced into evidence. Judge Marrero further conceded that Goldman Sachs was aware of deteriorating fundamentals in the subprime mortgage market and needed to ‘flip’ its risk onto the shoulders of its customers. But none of this convinced the Federal Judge – a so-called steward of the public trust – that he had an obligation to let the case proceed to trial and allow citizen jurors make their own determinations in the matter.
This post was published at Wall Street On Parade By Pam Martens and Russ Marte.
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