Christmas yachts this year may lack a 4th wet bar at Goldman Sachs, as shares of the firm fell 5 percent, erasing $2.7 billion off of the company's value. They've since recovered slightly, but investors are skittish because Lloyd Blankfein has hired criminal defense attorney Reid Weingarten due to the ongoing DOJ investigation of Goldman related to toxic mortgage-backed securities, the Times reports. Gee, why does everybody seem to think there's wrongdoing related to the propagation and sale of these securities?
Weingarten, who happens to be one of US Attorney General Eric Holder's "closest friends," has successfully defended many white collar clients in high-profile cases, including the former general counsel for Tyco (remember them?). But Weingarten lost his WorldCom case, and his client has sentenced to 25 years is prison. Maybe Lloyd hired Weingarten for his Power 'Do.
Blankfein has received near-unanimous support leading Goldman for the past six years (a shareholder meeting in May voted 97 percent in his favor) for good reason: Goldman's profits have been double what they were under Hank Paulson, and Goldman's settlement with the SEC for civil fraud charges did little to harm the company.
