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Goldman Sachs sold $250 million of BP stock before spill

Firm's stock sale nearly twice as large as any other institution; Represented 44 percent of total BP investment

The brokerage firm that's faced the most scrutiny from regulators in the past year over the shorting of mortgage related securities seems to have had good timing when it came to something else: the stock of British oil giant BP.

According to regulatory filings, RawStory.com has found that Goldman Sachs sold 4,680,822 shares of BP in the first quarter of 2010. Goldman's sales were the largest of any firm during that time. Goldman would have pocketed slightly more than $266 million if their holdings were sold at the average price of BP's stock during the quarter.

If Goldman had sold these shares today, their investment would have lost 36 percent its value, or $96 million. The share sales represented 44 percent of Goldman's holdings -- meaning that Goldman's remaining holdings have still lost tens of millions in value.

The sale and its size itself isn't unusual for a large asset management firm. Wall Street brokerages routinely buy and sell huge blocks of shares for themselves and their clients. In light of a recent SEC lawsuit arguing that Goldman kept information about a product they sold from their clients, however, the stock sale may raise fresh concern among Goldman's critics. Goldman is also a frequent target of liberals and journalists, including Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi, who famously dubbed the firm a "vampire squid."

Other asset management firms also sold huge blocks of BP stock in the first quarter -- but their sales were a fraction of Goldman's. Wachovia, which is owned by Wells Fargo, sold 2,667,419 shares; UBS, the Swiss bank, sold 2,125,566 shares.

Wachovia and UBS also sold much larger percentages of their BP stock, at 98 percently and 97 percent respectively.

Those reported buying BP's stock included Wellington Management, a large asset firm, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (CIA front for embezzlement and money laundering).

The firm has also faced criticism over giant bonuses paid to staff amidst the US financial crisis. Goldman reduced the sizes of its staff bonuses this year to $16.9 billion, and said it would pay its chief executive $9 million, far less than the previous year.

Goldman also announced it would create a $500 million program to help small businesses. Critics noted that the figure represented just 3% of the bonus pool.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0602/month-oil-spill-goldman-sachs-sold-25
0-million-bp-stock/

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Was Gulf Oil Spill an Inside Job?

By Victor Thorn
American Free Press
May 26, 2010

Could the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil rig explosion be part of a larger scheme to “reform” the energy industry, just as the Obama administration has “reformed” healthcare, banking and automobile manufacturers? Worse, is “cap and trade”—possibly the worst legislation ever penned—the ultimate endgame behind this spill, which they are now capitalizing upon?

The first red flag receiving virtually no attention is that Halliburton (of Dick Cheney fame) had finished a cementing process only 20 hours prior to Deepwater Horizon erupting in flames. Lawsuits have already been filed, with Reuters reporting on April 29, “Halliburton improperly and negligently performed its job in cementing the well, increasing the pressure at the well and contributing to the fire, explosion and resulting oil spill.”

As a result, a high-pressure pocket of deep oil 30,000 feet beneath the ocean floor erupted with the force of a gigantic, non-stop fire hose. A surviving worker on the rig, John Kersey, said it sounded “like a war zone” as alarms were triggered, electricity shorted out, and flames shot 300 feet into the air. The inferno-like blaze could be seen 35 miles away.

CONNECTIONS

Suspicions arise when an ownership paper trail is followed. Halliburton subcontracted for a company named Transocean, which leased and operated Deepwater Horizon for British Petroleum (BP). Transocean is a subsidiary of Sonat Inc., which merged with the El Paso Corporation (EPC) in March 1999. Douglas Foshee, EPC’s chairman, president and CEO, was hired away from Halliburton. The interim CEO prior to his arrival was Ronald Kuehn of Sonat.

Another previous CEO of EPC was William Wise, who served with Cheney on the influential National Petroleum Council. EPC was the largest single contributor from Texas for Bush-Cheney’s 2000 presidential campaign. Similarly, Wise helped Cheney raise $8 million for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

These incestuous relationships aren’t limited to the GOP. Barack Obama and his Chicago crime network expect to reap handsome profits in the future. Step No. 1 in this process began with Chicago’s Joyce Foundation, which had John Ayers (brother of terrorist William Ayers) on its board. Another board member was then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

The Joyce Foundation created the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), which in turn received financing from Franklin Raines, former head of Fannie Mae, a prime mover in our recent housing market collapse and economic recession.



Of vital importance is CCX’s role as the sole “carbon trading system” under Obama’s cap-and-trade bill. CCX would act as a quasi-stock market to buy and sell energy emission allowances. Richard Sandor, CCX founder, estimated a $10 trillion potential for this easily manipulated market.

BILDERBERG INFLUENCE

With that much money at stake, a host of high rollers enter the picture. Namely, one company with a huge ownership interest in CCX is Generation Investment Management (GIM), whose chairman is former Vice President Al Gore. Four other GIM founders include Henry Paulson, David Blood, Mark Ferguson and Peter Harris—all of Goldman Sachs. Not surprisingly, Goldman Sachs purchased 10 percent of CCX in 2006.

One other individual on CCX’s board of directors is the controversial Maurice Strong, a New Age occultist with direct ties to the Rockefellers and the Rothschilds.

Since Goldman Sachs has now become part of the equation, we next need to examine its non-executive chairman, Peter Sutherland, who formerly filled the same role at BP, the company at the center of this debacle. As the third-largest global energy company in existence, BP has four direct links to Bilderberg: former CEO John Brown, chairman Carl Henric Svanberg, chief executive Tony Hayward and Sutherland. In addition, Sutherland formerly served as the World Trade Organization’s director general, EU commissioner and chairman of the European Trilateral Commission.

This background information is important because the top recipient of BP donations during the 2008 presidential campaign was Obama. Similarly, the second highest political action committee contributing to a political candidate in 2008 was Goldman Sachs. The beneficiary of their largess: Obama.

Undoubtedly, one of Obama’s primary big government missions is to enact cap-and-trade legislation. To implement this plan, influential decision makers such as Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, Paul Volcker and Timothy Geithner are all members of the financial mafia. In this vein, David Mayer Rothschild stressed that last year’s Copenhagen environmental summit was “an attempt to establish a world government.”

Likewise, AFP editor Jim Tucker reported on March 24, 2007 that General Lord Guthrie, director of N.M. Rothschild & Sons, said political leaders should “address the global climate crisis with a single voice, and impose rules that apply worldwide.”

The Rothschilds have spent huge amounts of money promoting the global warming hoax. Goldman Sachs is obviously an arm of their empire, whereas BP is among a host of companies in Nathan Rothschild’s portfolio.

A TEAM EFFORT

Considering the nature of these prominent players, one factor binds them all together. Cap and trade, via the CCX, will tax carbon-dioxide emissions and generate trillions in revenue. Only a month ago, however, this legislation sat dead in the water with virtually no support from Congress or the American public. But now, with an environmental catastrophe at hand, could it be resurrected and enacted in a way that mirrored President Clinton’s counter-terrorism bill following the OKC bombing?

Ironically, big oil and global bankers are two of the most ardent supporters of climate change legislation. In this sense, seeming adversaries such as “environmentalist” Gore and BP are on the same team; as are Cheney’s Halliburton, Goldman Sachs and Obama’s CCX. It should also be noted that prior to their demise, the corrupt Enron Corporation lavished huge amounts of praise on cap and trade legislation.

Lastly, if gasoline prices surge this summer due to the Gulf of Mexico spill, one obvious benefactor will be the new green-friendly “smart cars” owned by GM (Government Motors).

As AFP goes to press, all containment efforts have failed as millions of gallons of oil continue to gush into the Gulf of Mexico on a weekly basis.

Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and the author of many books on 9-11 and the New World Order. These include 9-11 Evil: The Israeli Role in 9-11 and Phantom Flight 93.

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