Anti-Wall Street advocates have yet another reason to find blemishes in Goldman's (NYSE: GS) revamped corporate image. Two years ago, a junior banker at Goldman Sacks and a New York Federal Reserve employee colluded, allowing the Goldman banker access to confidential government information.The leak allowed Goldman insight into the Fed's private discussions about regulatory matters. Goldman was forced to pay a $50 million penalty for stealing government property and failing to have a management capable of properly supervising the junior banker.
Now, Goldman management faces more disciplinary action, as the Feds prepare an enforcement action, which will only be settled by payment of a financial penalty.
In addition, a former Goldman executive, who worked with the junior banker guilty of receiving the leaked information, is also being investigated,. Note that the junior banker was a former New York Fed employee, and got his job at Goldman with a job reference from a respected New York Fed official.
This news put a dagger in the public image of both big banks and the Feds, whose interactions come across as far too cozy and co-dependent. As New York Times writers Ben Protess and and Jessica Silver-Greenberg suggest, this "illustrates the perils of the proverbial revolving door between government and Wall Street."
To prevent conflict of interest and bias, the federal investigation into Goldman and the New York Fed has been handed to the Fed's board in Washington, which operates individually, and most importantly, without regard for the New York Fed.
The Fed's decision to re-pursue Goldman nearly two years after its initial investigation comes as a surprise. A year ago, when the New York State Department of Financial Services penalized Goldman, the Feds were given the opportunity to announce their own disciplinary action against the bank. They declined, and aside from barring the junior Goldman banker from employment in the banking industry, seemed to have moved past the scandal.
The Fed's decision for its penalty on Goldman will be announced in coming weeks. Sources project that the penalty will be less than the hefty $50 million requested by the New York regulator. But now, Goldman must enforce policies geared toward preventing another leak, and any failure to do so can result in further financial penalty.
On their behalf, Goldman is pleading improvement, with a spokesperson suggesting that the bank "had already reviewed policies regarding hiring from government institutions and have implemented changes to make them appropriately robust." They also fired the dirty banker upon discovering the leak, and hastily notified the appropriate regulators.