|  | | 2010 News and Press Releases | | |
DISMISSAL NEWS:
Goldman Sachs Wants Shareholder Lawsuits Combined, * Goldman does not oppose merging 8 derivative complaints* Eighteen lawsuits filed* SEC fraud lawsuit in April over CDO transaction
Staff Writer - Reuters
Thomson Financial News. July 8, 2010
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EXCERPT: Goldman Sachs Group Inc wants a federal judge to begin combining the 18 shareholder lawsuits it faces in the wake of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's civil fraud lawsuit against the Wall Street bank. According to a Wednesday night court filing, Goldman faces seven securities class-action complaints and eight derivative complaints in Manhattan federal court. Two more derivative complaints were filed in a New York state court, and another in a Delaware state court. Goldman executives and directors, including Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, are defendants in many of the lawsuits. Saying the complaints make "substantially similar" and "overlapping" allegations, including many from the SEC lawsuit, Goldman's lawyer, Gandolfo DiBlasi from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, said the bank does not oppose a motion by the Teamsters Allied Benefit Funds to combine the eight derivative complaints overseen by U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty in Manhattan. DiBlasi also asked Crotty to order the complaining shareholders, including those suing in other courts, to discuss proposals that could avoid the "potential duplication of time, effort and expense" from multiple complaints. Among the "critical threshold issues" is whether some of the derivative complaints should be put on hold or dismissed in favor of similar complaints elsewhere, he said. Derivative complaints are filed on behalf of companies to assert claims that management or directors failed to make. The SEC's April 16 lawsuit accused Goldman of creating and marketing collateralized debt obligations linked to subprime mortgages in early 2007, without telling investors that hedge fund Paulson & Co helped choose and was betting against the underlying securities. Investors lost about $1 billion on the securities, roughly equal to Paulson's profit, the SEC said. Goldman has denied wrongdoing. It faces a court-imposed July 19 deadline to respond to the SEC lawsuit, which some analysts have said could result in a settlement totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. […]. The Teamsters case is Teamsters Allied Benefit Funds et al v. Blankfein et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 10-03614. The SEC case is SEC v. Goldman Sachs & Co et al. in the same court, No. 10-03229. |
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