(New York) The American authorities are investigating the activities carried out by Goldman Sachs on behalf of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) before the bankruptcy of this Californian bank, Goldman Sachs revealed in a stock exchange document published on Thursday.
Goldman Sachs is “cooperating with and providing information to various government authorities” about its work on behalf of SVB in March, the statement said, referring to the period leading up to the spectacular tech finance establishment debacle.
Goldman Sachs has come under fire for both carrying out advisory work for the bank and repurchasing impaired securities in a deal that was revealed to have played a central role in SVB’s bankruptcy.
US authorities took possession of SVB on March 10, two days after the bank issued a statement announcing that it was seeking to raise capital quickly to meet the massive withdrawals of its customers, including losing $ 1.8 billion on the sale of financial securities.
In the same press release, SVB said it had instructed Goldman Sachs to raise fresh money.
Thursday, Goldman Sachs specified that the investigation of the American authorities related to “the period during which SVB hired it to raise capital and where it sold a portfolio of securities to it”.
About twenty elected Democrats in the House of Representatives had asked the banking regulator to open an investigation to determine whether Goldman Sachs “operated completely independently in its advisory activities for SVB”.