Breaking 
Wednesday: *DJ Ex-Paulson Co. Exec Pellegrini Told ACA Paulson Would Take Short Position In Abacus-CNBC- POTC does not think the..court..of..public..opinion will stabilize..GS. *SEC..Schapiro:.Goldman Charges Absolutely Not Politically Motivated
*Goldman.,Lawyer..Has..Been..Contacted By The FSA;
Not Sure If Tourre Worked On AIG CDOs;
No Current Intent For Blankfein To Address Charges
April 20, 2010 10:10 ET 13-43ET
Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
10: 10 AM EDT 04-20-10
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday signaled
he would be willing to break up big financial firms if their size poses a threat to the entire economy.
CC Notes:
GS's General Counsel Greg Palm was the pivot man on the CC. POTC feels he did what most GC's do, offer very few new details, and why should he. Palm did his job, but we don't feel great post CC since it's not the dollar amount(s) that could be settled, but the paradigm shift from an investing banking Wall Street to a more traditional banking model the Administration seems to be pushing for, as well as reputational damage, the fact there are other choices like Barclays or JPMorgan, or even Bank of America, corporations can take their business elsewhere as the Govt has endless funds to drag and attempt to expose Goldman. GS lost more than $100M investing in ABACUS, clients will support us with good service, always have option to settle, but it now looks like we're heading to trial vs the SEC, most mortgage-backed securities went bust in '06 anyway (so they don't feel it mattered which securities were picked), No idea whether ABACUS knew Paulson was shorting, (Palm did not disclose litigation reserves or other Wells notices when asked); POTC guesstimates there could be more, but GS has no legal basis to disclose new investigations unless their cost is estimated to affect at least 10% of firm capital > $86B.
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NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) co-General Counsel Greg Palm said Tuesday that the investment bank would not intentionally mislead clients, and would "be the first" to condemn any employees that went against that credo.
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Palm, speaking on Goldman's conference call, said the company would take action to punish deceptive employees. He said "our responsibilities as a financial intermediary require it, and our commitment to integrity and the firm's business principles demand it."
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The Securities and Exchange Commission accused the company and one of its executives, Fabrice Tourre, of defrauding investors by peddling a financial product it knew was doomed to fail as the housing market collapsed. Goldman maintains it has done nothing wrong and is fighting the charges.
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Tourre is currently out on indefinite leave, but has not been suspended by Goldman.
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Palm also said that Goldman lost upwards of $100 million on the transaction being investigated by the government. It previously said it was about $90 million.
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In addition, Palm said the case is heading toward a trial at this point, but that there is certainly the possibility that Goldman could settle if both sides come into agreement.
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"We don't know how this case is going to unfold at this point, its very early on," he said.
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-By Joe Bel Bruno, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2469; joe.belbruno@dowjones.com
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/access/al?rnd=bYHaTDNSXjSTeeQ8giQ9VA%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 20, 2010 08:56 ET (12:56 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.- - 08 56 AM EDT 04-20-10
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GS CEO Lloyd Blankfein will and wes a no show on the live 8ET conference call,
POTC thinks that's a negative development for longs. Since Lloyd stuck behind
Fabrice Tourre, we feel neither man will be with
GS by year end. Fabricce is most certainly under extreme pressure to talk to regulators now, and given the seriousness of the charges, fraud, it's possibile he cooperates with the S.E.C.
Securities and Exchange Chairwoman
Mary Schapiro's roots go back to
President Ronald Reagan, 1988. The vote to press fraud charges was 3-2 (3 democrats/2 republicans), with Schapiro's vote deciding.
CNBC reported on how this vote broke down and the fact Schapiro is a democrat, yet they failed to mention her experience. Though this looks like blatant partisanship, alleging fraud without legal merit is reckless behavior and cause for serious backlash, but especially for a person with 22 years experience.
Click here to view
Mary Schapiro's bio.
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Goldman Sachs Conference Call to Announce First Quarter 2010 Results
April 19, 2010
Please note new time:
Conference Call now scheduled for 8:00 am (ET)
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NEW YORK, NY, April 19, 2010, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE: GS) plans to announce its first quarter 2010 financial results on Tuesday, April 20th in a release that will be issued at approximately 7:00 am (ET). The press release will also be available on the firm’s web site,
http://www.gs.com
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A conference call to discuss the firm’s results, outlook and related matters, will now be held 8:00 am (ET). The call will be open to the public.
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David Viniar, Chief Financial Officer, will discuss first quarter earnings and related issues, and Greg Palm, Co-General Counsel, will address the recent SEC complaint against Goldman Sachs.
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Members of the public who would like to listen to the conference call should dial 1-888-281-7154 (U.S. domestic) and 1-706-679-5627 (international). The number should be dialed at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the conference call. The conference call will also be accessible as an audio webcast through the Investor Relations section of our web site, www.gs.com/shareholders. There is no charge to access the call. For those unable to listen to the live broadcast, a replay will be available on our web site or by dialing 1-800-642-1687
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(U.S. domestic) or 1-706-645-9291 (international) passcode number 65384365, beginning approximately two hours after the event.
This press release supersedes the March 25, 2010 announcement.
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POTC will be doing the following three trade alerts this Quarter: Mercadolibre (
MELI), earnings post after market close on Thursday, May 6th),
First Solar (
FSLR's earnings post after close on Wednesday, April 28th),
Baidu (
BIDU) dates not yet confirmed.
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If you're interested in receiving the in depth PFF trade alerts, click the Paypal link in the left margin. POTC appreciates every reader, but special thanks to the ones who signed-up our pay for play services. We are excited by the number of subscribers to date, and we value each one. A single trade alert requires intense motivation, experience, and smart effort. We promise to remain humble and focused with this increased workload. Our mission is to send you well-researched, educational, and most importantly, money making trades. We assure that we'll continue to be firmly rooted in the principles of free-market capitalism as the motivational driver looking-forward to the 2010 mid-term and 2012 Presidential election. Smaller Gov't and lower taxes are the answer to prosperity; bloated Govt only paves the "community" road to a lazy society. Let's Rally!
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PFF ratio involves dozens of hours of conference call rewinds,
technical,
fundamental, and
political/
policy analysis, and often times hidden
psychological facts WS analysts can overlook due to heavy workloads or a monolithic buy and hold mindset.
RIMM was a perfect example of Wall Street (WS) analysts "
falling in love" with a heavyweight stock, the
5th Commandment, then exhibiting frustration by raising price targets after a missed quarter.
BIDU was an example in the opposite direction, and
POTC was correct in both cases. The
6th Commandment states, "
never accept excuses from management", except for Goldman's Ms. Jankowski, most of WS went in and stayed bullish on
RIMM.
BIDU was an excellent
PFF ratio candidate in that many analysts and talking heads missed gaping
technical,
fundamental, and
political facts in our professional blogging opinion (iopbo).
CNBC's, Fast Money program,
Tim Seymour recommended selling
BIDU ahead of earnings as we recommended the $460 calls when shares were at $430.
Pete Najarian was bullish on
RIMM ahead of earnings last week, both lost money as our alerts proved correct. Credit to
Tim Seymour on
RIMM, he was negative ahead of the Q4 report.
