It didn't take long for Goldman Sachs (GS) to be insinuated in the Greek debt crisis. Spiegel Online International reports on the country's willingness to rely on cross-currency swaps devised by Goldman Sachs. This was done, the paper suggests, to get around Maastricht rules.

Greece debt managers apparently entered the swap deal in 2002. That allowed it to issue debt in dollars and yen and was swapped for euros. The catch is that the debt has to be exchanged back into the original currency at some point. Another twist: "In the Greek case, the U.S. bankers devised a special kind of swap with fictional exchange rates. That enabled Greece to receive a far higher sum than the actual euro market value of 10 billion dollars or yen. In that way Goldman Sachs secretly arranged additional credit of up to $1 billion for the Greeks."

Will this explode into a major issue? I doubt it, as these sorts of swaps are common. But Goldman Sachs will always be a lightening rod. 

For more:
- here's the article

Related Articles:
Goldman's ever-troubling roll in AIG mess
Goldman Sachs again shows the way on pay
$20 million the mark for Lloyd Blankfein?
Goldman Sachs partners get more stock