Goldman Sachs, its image tarnished by a new subprime-related legal action brought by the government, on Monday made additional comments on the case, including a revelation that it too lost money on the CDO transaction in question.
Goldman now claims the firm lost more than $90 million on the deal, which is still paltry compared to almost $1 billion in estimated losses suffered by investors. In answering allegations levied by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Wall Street firm says it made "extensive" disclosures to investors IKB, a large German Bank, and ACA Capital Management, which it called "sophisticated CDO market" participants.
Goldman says the "risk associated with the securities was known to these investors." On Friday the SEC accused Goldman and an executive involved in the transaction of misleading clients on a subprime bond known as ABACUS 2007-AC1. Goldman marketed the offering in 2007.
The SEC accused the firm of civil fraud, saying it created the CDO with the help of a hedge fund that was shorting the same bond but did not disclose the relationship to investors.
