Thursday, January 30, 2014

Toxic Squid

Bloomberg News --

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) made about $350 million on “worthless” derivatives trades after exerting “undue influence” on managers of the Libyan Investment Authority, according to the sovereign-wealth fund, the second-largest in Africa. LIA sued Goldman Sachs on Jan. 21 in London over investments of about $1 billion made in 2008. The fund said in court documents released today that its executives, who were given gifts of chocolate and after-shave by the bank, never understood the transactions.

Reuters --

Denmark's Socialist People's Party announced on Thursday it will leave the government but will continue to support the centre-left ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. The Socialist party, which has been at odds with its coalition partners over economic policy, quit after an internal split over a government plan to sell a stake in state-owned utility DONG Energy to a group of investors led by Goldman Sachs .