The Securities and Exchange Commission has hired a 29-year-old Goldman Sachs alumnus as managing executive of its enforcement division.
Adam Storch, who joined the securities watchdog this week, was a vice-president in the Business Intelligence Group at Goldman, a division that checks trades and investment banking deals for signs of fraud or reputational risk.
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His hiring comes after a week in which Goldman has produced hand-wringing in Washington for its healthy bonus payments and amid long-standing concerns over the “revolving door” between the bank and government agencies.
“I am honoured to join the SEC at this crucial time,” said Mr Storch in a statement released by the commission. “I look forward to working with the talented and dedicated staff of the SEC.”
The managing executive role is a new job in a division that is going through extensive restructuring and is still reeling from its failure to spot frauds, including the Ponzi scheme of Bernard Madoff.
Allowing former Goldman Sachs executives to clean up a mess that Goldman Sachs was explicitly involved in creating is ludicrous and criminal in my mind. This is nothing new of course: former Bush adm. Treasury secretary Hank Paulson was a Goldman Sachs executive. He was on the phone with them constantly a year ago, when the financial crisis came to a head and institutions like Goldman were begging -- or ordering -- their boy Paulson to bail them out, as they were "too big to fail."
It's no better these days. The AP got access to Sec. Tim Geithner's phone records, via a FOIA request.
The calendars, obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act, offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the continued influence of three companies — Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. — whose executives can reach the nation's most powerful economic official on the phone, sometimes several times a day.
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What the calendars show, however, is that only a select few can call the treasury secretary.
After one hectic week in May in which the U.S. faced the looming bankruptcy of General Motors and the prospect that the government would take over the automaker, Geithner wrapped up his night with a series of phone calls.
First he called Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman and CEO at Goldman. Then he called Jamie Dimon, the boss at JPMorgan. Obama called next, and as soon as they hung up, Geithner was back on the phone with Dimon.
Glenn Greenwald has more, including a reminder that Goldman was the top contributor to Obama's presidential campaign. Round and round we go.
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