Probe of Goldman Sachs focuses on unit’s trades

Goldman Sachs & Co. says one of its units is being investigated by federal regulators over whether it improperly used investment accounts to make trades, and could face civil fraud charges.

Goldman says the staff of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has told the firm it will recommend that the agency file charges.

The charges involve money belonging to customers of another financial firm that was a Goldman client. Goldman says in a filing with regulators that the charges would be based on allegations that it knew or should have known that the money belonged to customers of that firm rather than to the firm itself.

Goldman says it is cooperating with the investigation. It didn’t name the client firm.

Associated Press