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.
Goldman is also a frequent target of liberals and journalists, including Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi, who famously dubbed the firm a “vampire squid.”
In a related story, BP CEO dumped a third of his holding two weeks before the gusher. Since we don’t believe in conspiracies, we’ll just call this a happy coincidence.
Nothing to see here, move along.
There are rumors in the Gulf oilfield that the BP Representative on the Horizon directed the drilling company (Transocean) to pump sea water into the well bore. Normally, weighted drilling fluids (mud) is used to counteract the pressure of “kicks”.
The kicks had been occurring for quite a few days prior to the disaster. Kick: An intrusion of pressurized gas into the wellbore that causes a displacement of of drilling fluid. This can be the beginning of a blowout.
The Transocean people argued that it was ridiculous to put sea water in the well, all to no avail. The rest, as they say, is history.