Goldman Sachs' chief spokesman, Lucas van Praag, issued the following statement in response to the latest installment in Greg Gordon's investigative series on the Wall Street firm, "Investors only could lose in Goldman's Caymans deals," published on Dec. 30:
"The McClatchy story on synthetic CDOs is riddled with factual inaccuracies and lacks a fundamental understanding of the instruments, the market conditions at the time and the intent of investors entering into the trades. There is nothing to be taken away from the story other than the fact that reporter fails to comprehend the subject matter."
Van Praag added: "Mr. Gordon appears to have been inspired by a New York Times story on synthetic CDOs that was published on December 24."
McClatchy stands by its reporting, and rejects as untrue Mr. Van Praag's allegations that the story "is riddled with factual inaccuracies" and that the reporter "fails to comprehend the subject matter."
As flattering as it is, Mr. van Praag's assumption that Greg Gordon produced his Dec. 30 story in six days is incorrect. In fact, he had finished reporting and writing the story, and it was being edited on Dec. 24 when The New York Times published "Banks Bundled Bad Debt, Bet Against It and Won," that paper's variation on the theme of McClatchy's Nov. 1-4 series on how Goldman Sachs had bundled bad debt, bet against it and won.
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