Striking differences are becoming apparent in the way respective national justice systems are handling the question of responsibility for the global financial crisis.
In Germany, the former CEO over at German's IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, Stefan Ortseifen, has been found guilty of market manipulation. He was found guilty of misleading the market about the true impact of the sub-prime crisis on his institution, effectively manipulating the market.
By contrast, in the USA, Goldman Sachs is said to be in negotiation with the Securities and Exchange Commission to obtain a settlement that would simultaneously eliminate the fraud lawsuit against the bank as well as some of the SEC’s lower-profile probes of the firm’s mortgage department.
As the Wall Street Journal reports:
The settlement idea was floated by Goldman, which is eager to end the bad publicity swirling around the New York company ever since the SEC sued it in April over a collateralized debt obligation called Abacus 2007-AC1, these people said. Combining a settlement of the Abacus lawsuit with a resolution of related SEC probes could soothe Goldman clients and investors, while shielding the firm from the release of information that could be used against Goldman in private litigation.
With Bhopal still fresh in my mind, it reminds me of other successful corporate strategies to buy themselves cheaply out of a whole lot of trouble.
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