Charity Filing Provides a Glimpse of Goldman

corporate greedThe latest tax filing for Goldman Sachs’s foundation is as thick as a phone book. The list of trades is more than 200 pages, single spaced. Goldman, it seems, invests like no other, even for its own charity.

“I have never seen anything like it,” said Verne O. Sedlacek, president of Commonfund, when shown the 2007 filing, which was nearly three inches thick. He has a good overview from the Commonfund, which manages more than $25 billion for universities, foundations and other not-for-profit groups.

The 2008 tax filing for the Goldman Sachs Foundation, a copy of which was provided by the firm late Wednesday, provides a glimpse of the legendary trading that has helped put the firm on track for its best year ever. The foundation, whose returns do not appear outsized in recent years, has placed a lot of its money in hedge funds and trades heavily in futures contracts based on baskets of stocks, bonds and currencies.

Given the firm’s anticipated profits and supersize bonuses, which have touched off public furor, it is no surprise that Goldman said recently it would increase its charitable giving. It has set aside $200 million to nearly double the size of its main foundation.

Full Story Charity Filing Provides a Glimpse of Goldman – NYTimes.com.

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