Carl Levin Questions Goldman Sachs Daniel Sparks: Quotes E-Mail

by Amy Judd | April 27, 2010 at 12:04 pm

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Senator Carl Levin of Michigan Questions Goldman Sachs Employee Daniel Sparks: Quotes E-Mail That Describes 'Shitty Deal'

Carl Levin was not backing down on Tuesday when questioned Daniel Sparks over an e-mail that was sent about a portfolio that was referred to as a 'shitty deal'. Watch the Video here.

Mr. Levin accused Goldman Sachs of selling securities to people that they would not consider investing in themselves.

That's "unbridled greed in the absence of the cop on the beat to control it," he said.

He also accused Goldman Sachs of behaving like the banks did in the 1920s, just before the Great Depression. He said that the parallels to what happened back then when the markets crashed and what has happened recently are 'unmistakable'.

In the e-mail Mr. Levin quotes from it speaks about a portfolio called Timberwolf, and it says 'boy that Timberwolf was one shitty deal'.

Daniel Sparks says that the e-mail was from the head of the division and not the sales force, and Mr. Levin states that whatever it was, it was an internal Goldman document. According to Mr. Sparks, it was an e-mail to him in late June after the transaction and Mr. Levin says that is not true as Goldman Sachs sold Timberwolf after as well.

Mr. Levin says that June 22 2007 was the date of the e-mail and he asks Daniel Sparks how much of that 'shitty deal' he sold to his clients after June 2007. Mr. Sparks says that he does not know the answer to that, but the price would have reflected levels at that time, but Mr. Levin says that Goldman Sachs did not tell anyone they thought it was a shitty deal.

Mr. Sparks says that he took the e-mail to mean that his performance on the deal was not good because they had lost money on it; so not that the deal was 'shitty' but that it was done in a 'shitty' way.