A letter drafted by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) calling for a criminal investigation of Goldman Sachs has garnered more than 140,000 petition signatures as well as the support of 61 members of the House, including Republican congressman Michael Burgess of Texas. Kaptur’s letter, addressed to Attorney General Eric Holder, draws on the allegations cited in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s securities fraud suit against Goldman, and says the DOJ should go one step further by pursuing criminal charges against Goldman. “If the DOJ is not currently looking into this particular case, we respectfully ask you to ensure that the US Department of Justice immediately open a case on this matter and investigate,” Kaptur’s letter says.
Kaptur and members of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, the organization that drummed up the petition signatures and also made some 4,000 calls to Congress about a Goldman criminal suit, will meet outside the DOJ today at 2 pm to turn up the heat on Holder. The pressure from Kaptur and PCCC comes at a incredibly tough juncture for Goldman. In addition to the SEC’s civil suit, Goldman’s top executives, including CEO Lloyd Blankfein, face a shareholder suit in New York surrounding the firm’s controversial collateralized debt obligations deal (the same at the center of the SEC suit). The firm is also the defendant in a class-action suit over mortgage securities. Blankfein has said he and the firm will fight the SEC’s suit.
