While we doubt anything material will emerge for various obvious reasons, the NY Post reports that the DOJ is probing Goldman Sachs for alleged Treasury auction rigging: the charge is that Goldman, one of the 23 US primary dealers, won almost all Treasury bond auctions from 2007 to about 2011 even after the Treasury department established safeguards to maintain competitiveness. The case is said to center on chats and emails showing Goldman traders sharing price information with traders at other banks:
Chats and emails believed to show Goldman traders sharing sensitive price information with traders at other banks are at the center of the case, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
‘They didn’t lose many bids,’ one person who has seen the bid data told The Post. The prices Goldman offered for Treasury bonds ‘would be very close’ but just above offers from other banks, and typically arrived ‘at the end of the auction.’
While not the first time we have had news of a DOJ probe into Treasury market rigging – the Post itself reported last March virtually the same story, namely that “Goldman Sachs probed in alleged Treasury rigging“, and prior that in June of 2015 – the details are new, and suggest that collusion between the banks reaches far beyond merely FX. Also notable is the deference to Goldman by other banks, raising questions what was the quid pro quo. The timing is also notable, coming at a time when at least half a dozen Goldman Sachs alumni are in high levels of the executive branch. Which is perhaps why Goldman feels compelled to clarify that “No one has accused any bank, or Mnuchin or Cohn, of any wrongdoing.”
This post was published at Zero Hedge on May 3, 2017.
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