ETHICS CASE
Questionable Values Produce Resignation at Goldman Sachs
Allegations of serious impropriety and perhaps illegality surrounding Goldman Sachs’s contribution to the 2008 financial crisis have been well publicized. Allegations included trading for their own benefit directly against the interests of its clients (e.g., the ABACUS deal involved deliberately stuffing collateralized debt obligations with inferior mortgage assets, selling them to clients, and then short selling them for their own account) and abusive practices generally.1 These allegations and a description of the ABACUS deal are the subject of the ethics case “Goldman Sachs’s Conflicts: Guilty or Not?” which begins on page 685.
The underlying values associated with this kind of activity were obviously troubling. This was further illustrated in 2012 when Greg Smith, head of Goldman’s U.S. equity derivatives….

