Morning Coffee: Did Goldman Sachs seduce naive clients with girls, drink? Deutsche making ‘real money’ again
Goldman Sachs stands accused of dubious methods of attracting clients. The accusations date back to the still-just-about-heady days of mid-2008, when the firm was attempting to sell investment products to credulous members of the Libyan Investment Authority (Libya’s sovereign wealth fund) whom it allegedly treated to lavish holidays and nights out.
The LIA is suing Goldman after it lost $1bn in three years from buying synthetic equity products which it mistakenly thought were underlying shares. It argues that Goldman made $350m in profit from the deal and that its trusting senior managers were “taken for a complete ride” by the “extremely, intelligent, ambitious and experienced” team at Goldman Sachs.
In court yesterday, Catherine McDougall, an independent lawyer who was working at the LIA at the time of Goldman’s involvement with the fund, claimed that Youssef Kabbaj, Goldman’s then head of North Africa, wooed LIA staff with an all-expenses paid holidays in Morocco that involved ‘heavy drinking and girls,’ and that he also took them on nights out in London Thanks to his efforts, Kabbaj allegedly became a ‘very close friend’ of the innocent LIA professionals, who didn’t even know what due diligence was.
The LIA wants its money back. Goldman hasn’t commented on McDougall’s comments in particular, but says the LIA is merely experiencing “buyer’s remorse.” In court documents, Goldman has also pointed out that McDougall arrived at the LIA after the disputed trades had already been agreed upon.
Separately, someone is getting excited at Deutsche Bank. An unnamed individual at the German bank told Reuters that, “real money is being earned once again” and that this applies to both the retail bank and the investment bank. Reuters points out that Deutsche has positioned itself as one of the ‘last men standing’ in fixed income trading, which has theoretically had a good third quarter. It also points out that Deutsche could do with some good news – the bank’s share price has fallen 17% since January, compared to a 2% rise at its European rivals.
