No one on Wall Street thinks Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) was alone in the way it aggressively packaged and marketed collateralized debt obligations (CDO news). There was a fortune to be made, and all the top banks had invested heavily in making sure they got their just piece of the pie. Thanks to the WSJ, the spotlight is now on Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB).

Hedge fund honcho John Paulson (John Paulson news) reportedly was allowed to choose the securities that went into various CDOs he was betting against. The role he played in the process was at the heart of the SEC's case against Goldman.

Deal Journal notes that Goldman--even though it is the poster boy for CDO abuses--was arguably a small time player. From 2005 and 2007, Goldman issued about $53 billion in CDOs, while Deutsche Bank issued $98 billion, J.P. Morgan $128 billion and Citigroup $110 billion, the blog notes.

 I still think we'll see some sort of global settlement calling for fines and new business practices. The time is ripe for the SEC.

For more:
- here's the article

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