Justice Dept. says it won’t prosecute Goldman Sachs or its employees in financial fraud probe

WASHINGTON – The Justice Department said Thursday it won’t prosecute Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs or its employees in a financial fraud probe.

In a written statement, the department said it conducted an exhaustive investigation of allegations brought to light by a Senate panel investigating the 2008-2009 financial crisis.

“The department and investigative agencies ultimately concluded that the burden of proof to bring a criminal case could not be met based on the law and facts as they exist at this time,” the department said.

But the department added that if additional or new evidence were to emerge, it could reach a different conclusion about prosecuting Goldman if warranted.

A Senate subcommittee chaired by Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in April 2011 found that Goldman marketed four sets of complex mortgage securities to banks and other investors but that the firm failed to tell clients that the securities were very risky. The Senate panel said Goldman secretly bet against the investors’ positions and deceived the investors about its own positions to shift risk from its balance sheet to theirs.

The Justice Department’s decision capped a good day for Goldman as the Securities and Exchange Commission decided not to file charges against the firm over a $1.3 billion subprime mortgage portfolio. At the same time, the Justice Department’s decision ensured that the Obama administration will continue to feel political heat, particularly from the liberal wing of the president’s own party, for not having brought more prosecutions in the financial crisis.

The Senate panel probe turned up company emails showing Goldman employees deriding complex mortgage securities sold to banks and other investors as “junk” and “crap.”

Levin said during his subcommittee’s investigation that he believed that Goldman executives “misled the Congress” and that Goldman “gained at the expense of their clients and they used abusive practices to do it.”

Levin questioned the accuracy of testimony Goldman Sachs executives gave to Congress about whether the firm steered investors toward mortgage securities it knew likely would fail.

Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein told the Senate panel that the company didn’t bet against its clients and couldn’t survive without their trust. The company lost $1.2 billion in the mortgage meltdown in 2007 and 2008 that touched off the financial crisis and the worst recession since the 1930s, Blankfein testified. He also insisted that Goldman wasn’t making an aggressive negative bet — or short sale — on the mortgage market’s slide.