Goldman Sachs faces questions in Europe
Goldman Sachs is facing a potential backlash in Europe over the fraud case brought against it in the United States, with Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown calling for authorities there to investigate and accusing the investment bank of "moral bankruptcy." Germany also said it would ask for detailed information about the case. Both governments had to bail out banks that lost hundreds of millions of dollars on investments marketed by Goldman, according to the fraud suit brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, in Britain's case Royal Bank of Scotland through its acquisition of parts of ABN Amro. The SEC said the Royal Bank of Scotland paid Goldman $841 million to unwind ABN Amro transactions. Royal Bank of Scotland is now 84 percent owned by British taxpayers after being partly nationalized by the government. Germany's IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, an early victim of the credit crunch, lost nearly all its $150 million investment, the SEC said.