Goldman Sachs Execs Lauded Profits From Housing Market Collapse

VOA News. E-mails released Saturday show executives of the U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs boasting about making money by betting against risky subprime mortgages as the U.S. housing market was collapsing in 2007.

In one of the e-mails, which were released by a U.S. Senate committee, Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said the company lost money on the mortgages - but made more than it lost by taking a so-called short position on the mortgages.

Short positions are bets the market will go down.

The emails were released as Blankfein and other Goldman Sachs executives prepare to testify on Tuesday before a Senate committee investigating the origins of the financial crisis.

Goldman Sachs said Saturday the Senate committee unfairly released only four emails from almost 20 million pages of documents provided by the company.

Earlier this month, U.S. financial regulators filed suit against Goldman Sachs, accusing the company of assembling a package of mortgage investments intended to fail, and selling the security to investors without warning them of the dangers.

Goldman Sachs has vigorously denied any wrongdoing and has vowed to defend its reputation.