Goldman Sachs is the only firm so far to face SEC charges for structuring CDOs that allowed customers to bet for and against the housing market, but the practice was widespread, reports Bloomberg: "More than half a dozen of the world's biggest banks underwrote CDOs involving hedge-fund firms with bets against mortgage bonds, including Citigroup, UBS, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo & Co.'s Wachovia Corp. unit, Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Agricole SA, according to data compiled by Bloomberg."
We noted last night that a top in-house lawyer at Deutsche Bank from 2002 to 2009, Robert Khuzami, is now director of enforcement at the SEC. Bloomberg also notes that it wasn't just Paulson & Co. betting against the housing market, or subprime. Another firm that did so was Tricadia, "created in April 2003 as an affiliate of Marnier Investment Group, a hedge-fund firm whose management included Lee Sachs, now a counselor to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner."