The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s internal watchdog said he will expand his probe into whether politics drove an agency lawsuit against Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to include the timing behind a $550 million settlement with the company.
SEC Inspector General H. David Kotz agreed in April to a request from U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, that he probe whether politics prompted the lawsuit against Goldman Sachs. Today, in response to another request from Issa, Kotz said in a letter to the congressman that he will broaden the probe to review the agency’s July 15 accord with the New York-based bank.
Issa requested that Kotz examine whether there was any political reason that the SEC’s announcement of the settlement came two hours after the Senate approved legislation overhauling financial regulation.
“The commission must seek to avoid even the appearance of applying political considerations or self-serving grandstanding,” Issa wrote in a letter today to the SEC inspector general. “That is why the timing of the commission’s initial suit against Goldman, the settlement of that suit and the public announcements of both actions have been a cause of concern.”
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