Page Perry

Last week lawyers representing Goldman Sachs and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch inadvertently released embarrassing documents detailing unethical trading practices and complete disregard for the interests of smaller clients (See “Accidentally Released ? and Incredibly Embarrassing ? Documents Show How Goldman et al Engaged in ‘Naked Short Selling,'” Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone and “Goldman, Merrill E-Mails Show Naked Shorting, Filing Says,” Karen Gullo, Bloomberg). These documents include a series of e-mails from 2005-2006 that “reflect business decisions to put profits and corporate ambition over compliance.” These e-mails were produced during a California lawsuit against these banks on charges of naked short selling Overstock shares to artificially lower Overstock’s stock price; the lawsuit was dropped in San Francisco because “none of the conduct alleged in the complaint happened in California.”