Germany Reviews Legal Action Against Goldman After Fraud Case

Germany may take legal action against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said it was suing the company on fraud charges, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said.     

The German financial regulator, Bafin, “will ask the SEC for information,” Wilhelm, main spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said today by phone. “Then we will look at the records and consider possible legal steps.”

Goldman was sued yesterday by U.S. regulators for fraud tied to collateralized debt obligations that contributed to the financial crisis. In the complaint, the SEC cited Dusseldorf- based IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG as a purchaser of part of the CDO at issue. In 2008, Germany’s state-owned KfW development bank pumped almost 10 billion euros ($13.5 billion) into IKB to shore up the German banking system.      It’s too early to say whether any legal action will relate to IKB, Wilhelm said. “First we have to ask for information,” he said.