NEW YORK – Goldman Sachs Group Inc. was subpoenaed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office over the investment bank’s activities leading up to the financial crisis, says a person familiar with the matter.

Goldman’s stock price fell nearly 2 percent to $133.88 a share Thursday after Bloomberg News reported that the bank had been subpoenaed. Goldman’s shares are down 20 percent so far this year and are at levels not seen since last July.

Goldman has been watched by lawmakers and regulators since marketing risky investments that bet on the housing market’s success just before the mortgage meltdown. Simultaneously, the bank reaped billions of dollars from its own bets that the housing market would collapse. Those gains have also made it the target of intense media scrutiny and public outrage.

“This is just another thorn in Goldman’s side,” said Peter Henning, a professor of law at Wayne State University in Detroit. The government’s request for information from Goldman is the first stage of an investigation, but it does not mean the company will necessarily face any charges, Henning said.

The subpoena follows the April release of a 639-page Senate report that showed Goldman had steered investors toward mortgage securities it knew would likely fail.

The report, which was the result of a Senate panel investigation of the financial crisis, found that Goldman marketed four sets of complex mortgage securities to banks and other investors. The report said the firm failed to tell the banks and investors that the securities were very risky, secretly bet against the investors’ positions and deceived them about its own positions. The report concluded this was part of Goldman’s effort to shift risk from its balance sheet to those of investors.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who heads the panel, said at the time the report was released that he planned to convey findings to the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible further investigation.

Levin’s spokesman, Bryan Thomas, said Thursday that the senator had no comment.

One Goldman investor questioned what new material the Manhattan district attorney might be looking for in its investigation.

“I think the news here is that you really can’t tell how much more of this there’s going to be. Did the SEC settlement eradicate all the termites?” said Michael Farr, president and chief investment officer of the Farr, Miller & Washington investment firm, which owns 60,000 Goldman shares.

Last summer, Goldman agreed to pay $550 million to settle SEC civil fraud charges that the firm misled buyers of mortgage-related securities.

Goldman acknowledged that its marketing materials for the deal at the center of the charges omitted key information for buyers. But the firm did not admit legal wrongdoing.

 

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