Goldman Sachs Group lost up to $30 million in the sale of its own $3.99 billion secondary stock issue in August and is now requesting that its underwriting competitors involved in the deal hand over approximately $500,000 each to make up for the loss. In a letter to each of the 16 syndicate member firms Goldman wrote: "Due to an accounting error, it has come to our attention that you were overpaid. We apologize for any inconvenience. We would appreciate the prompt forwarding of your check." According to a Goldman spokeswoman, "It is not unusual to adjust expenses and when we saw there were additional unreimbursed expenses, we immediately contacted the co-managers, which is standard practice. What has been clear from the start is the complete success of the deal."

Northern Light

-- Anonymous, January 09, 2001