This New York Times expose on Henry Paulson and Goldman Sachs makes one thing clear: There is now no doubt that Henry Paulson and Goldman Sachs have violate numerous federal laws. Paulson laundered several billion dollars of money to Goldman Sachs, through A.I.G. Paulson lied to Congress about the true nature of TARP. Paulson lied to Congress about his role in the Federal Reserve's decision to give over $185 billion to A.I.G.
Paulson has also violated the federal honest service statute, which makes it a felony for a government official to breach his fidicuariy obligation to taxpayers. See 18 U.S.C. 1346 ("the term 'scheme or artifice to defraud' includes a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.")
Paulson clearly violated his duties to American taxpayers when he transferred billions of dollars of wealth to Goldman Sachs under false pretenses; when he lied to Congress in order to obtains hundreds-of-billions of dollars in TARP funds; when he conspired with Goldman Sachs to "save" A.I.G. for Goldman's sake; and whe he lied to Congress about his role in "saving" A.I.G.
The New York Times is reporting about some of Paulson-Goldman Sachs conversations:
While Mr. Paulson spoke to many Wall Street executives during [the early days of the economic crisis], he was in very frequent contact with Lloyd C. Blankfein, Goldman’s chief executive, according to a copy of Mr. Paulson’s calendars acquired by The New York Times through a Freedom of Information Act request.
During the week of the A.I.G. bailout alone, Mr. Paulson and Mr. Blankfein spoke two dozen times, the calendars show, far more frequently than Mr. Paulson did with other Wall Street executives.
What did they talk about? We are left to draw reasonable inferences. Clearly they discussed how to launder money through A.I.G. into Goldman Sachs.
Paulson has lied repeatedly about his role in laundering money through A.I.G. He told Congres, under oath:
“I want you to know that I had no role whatsoever in any of the Fed’s decision regarding payments to any of A.I.G.’s creditors or counterparties.”
Yet FOIA requests reveal that Paulson committed perjury when he lied before Congress:
On Sept. 16, 2008, the day that the government agreed to inject billions into A.I.G., Mr. Paulson personally called Robert B. Willumstad, A.I.G.’s chief executive, and dismissed him.
Mr. Paulson’s involvement in the decision to rescue A.I.G. is also supported by an e-mail message sent by Scott G. Alvarez, general counsel at the Federal Reserve Board, to Robert Hoyt, a Treasury legal counsel, that same day.The subject of the message, acquired under the Freedom of Information Act, is “AIG Letter,” and it contains a reference to a document called “AIG.Paulson.Letter.draft2.09.16.2008.doc.” The letter itself was not released.
We need Elliot Spitzer. The New York Times has discovered corruption and federal crimes through FOIA requests - which generally only net banal evidence. It is now clear that Henry Paulson violated the federal honest services statute. He is a criminal.
If the Times was able to uncover so much corruption through Freedom of Information Act requests, imagine what a federal prosecutor could uncover with subpoenas and FBI agents. The Paulson-A.I.G. letter would most certainly be released to federal prosecutors; there'd be no choice.
As we all know, though, the Department of Justice is not interested in investigating corruption on Wall Street. Bernie Madoff spent decades cheating investors out of billions. He wasn't arrested until he called the police on himself - through his sons. When a Goldman Sachs employee allegedly stold a few lines of code from Goldman Sachs, though, the Department of Justice took less than 48 hours to make an arrest.
