Redirecting

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

SEC vs GS: Just When I Thought I Was Out...

They pull me back in!

I'd be remiss if I didn't republish this story: "Testimony Could Undercut SEC Charge Against Goldman".  For those unaware, Paulo Pellegrini is a former Paulson lieutenant who left to start his own hedge fund.

presented without comment, emphasis mine:

"The government has testimony from a Paulson & Co. official that could contradict its own claims against Goldman Sachs, CNBC has learned.

Paolo Pellegrini told the government that he informed ACA Management that Paulson intended to bet against, or short, a portfolio of mortgages ACA was assembling. 

If true, the testimony would go directly against government claims that ACA did not know Paulson was hoping the collateralized debt obligations would fail, and subvert charges that Goldman breached its duty by not informing ACA of Paulson's position.

CNBC has examined documents in which a government official asked Pellegrini whether he informed ACA CDO manager Laura Schwartz about Paulson's position.

"Did you tell her that you were interested in taking a short position in Abacus?" a government official asked Pellegrini, referring to the name of the CDO portfolio.

"Yes, that was the purpose of the meeting," Pellegrini responded.

The exchange is key in that the Securities and Exchange Commission is charging that the failure to disclose Paulson's position was a "material" factor that could have caused both ACA and German Bank IKB to back out of the CDO investment. When the CDO failed, Paulson reaped a gain of more than $900 million, the government has said.

The SEC does not mention the exchange in its complaint against Goldman.

"We look forward to presenting a complete and accurate evidentiary record in court," SEC spokesman John Nester said in a statement to CNBC."

-KD

6 comments:

M said...

Don`t forget this:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=agHGvijV55fM&refer=us

scharfy said...

It would appear that (using the Magnetar deal as a roadmap) that these CDO's were constructed with the Hedgie's taking long equity positions in the smaller equity tranches and taking the short leg on the rest of the deal. THis kind obscures their role in the position, pricing and construction of the deal. (just a thought)

Akin to doing a 1x10 put spread...

This story is strange. It has French Playboys, Italian character actors, silent big money hedgefund players, evil bankers, civil servants, politics, and deceit....

My jury is still out. I want to hear Laura Schwartz's (the ACA manager) story.

from one of her emails to Goldman:

* Laura Schwartz of ACA’s January 8, 2007 e-mail to Gail Kreitman in which she wrote “I have no idea how [the Paulson meeting] went – I wouldn’t say it went poorly, not at all, but I think it didn’t help that we didn’t know exactly how they want to participate in the space. Can you give us some feedback?” (GS MBS-E-003499710);

Furthering the weirdness. Here's a business week article from March of that year about Paulson.. (the deal closed in April)

paulson shorting subprime

Kid Dynamite said...

scharfy - that ACA email does indeed seem odd, considering the text of this blog post with Pelligrini's view...

again, the businessweek article just proves that ACA should have known... but interestingly, none of this may make GS less guilty - technically they still didn't disclose the info!

also note that Magnetar claims that except for a few cases, they were NOT short their own equity deals - they claim it was an arb where they were long some deals and short others.

Kid Dynamite said...

oh ps scharfy - i'm not sure Paulson actually bought the equity tranche in this one... but it doesn't matter to my views, really.

scharfy said...

yes it appears Goldman took the equity tranche (hence the $90mm loss) and threw it in their cauldron o' CDO's...

Well either way, the US Senate gets to do their circus act and get some Camera time soon..

Kid Dynamite said...

scharfy - i think the pelligrini meeting with ACA was AFTER that email from ACA's Laura Schwartz...