The Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee has urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to investigate the computer trading program of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that, according to a federal prosecutor, the bank acknowledges can be used to manipulate markets.
GATA’s complaint to the two commissions refers to a 6 July Bloomberg News story reporting the arraignment in U.S. District Court in New York of a former Goldman Sachs employee accused of stealing the program. The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Facciponti, was quoted as telling the court: “The bank has raised the possibility that there is a danger that somebody who knew how to use this program could use it to manipulate markets in unfair ways.”
In its letters to the SEC and CFTC, GATA wrote: “The assistant U.S. attorney’s comment can be construed to suggest Goldman Sachs considers its own manipulation of markets to be fair, while such manipulation by others would be unfair. The court proceeding described in the Bloomberg News story would seem to impugn all markets in which Goldman Sachs trades.”
GATA asked each commission “to investigate Goldman Sachs’ trading program urgently and report its findings publicly.”
L.D.