Goldman Sachs makes the news again... And, again, it's for "not doing right". Where does it end, I ask!
Here's the TL;DR: A couple, James & Janet Baker, came up with an idea for speech recognition. They named their company "Dragon Systems" - I remember them, and used their product in the 90's. It was quite impressive technology and is now rumored to be part of Siri, Apple's voice-stuff for the iPhone. Except Mr and Mrs Baker don't have the expected rewards, because, as they allege in a lawsuit, Goldman Sachs basically screwed them over with incompetent counsel and indifferent "advice".
As Dragon Systems expanded, Mr & Mrs Baker realized they needed more capital to keep up. So they signed up with Goldman Sachs to achieve that. A Belgian firm, Lernout & Hauspie (L&H), became the buyer of Dragon Systems. I remember them, too. There was always something "not quite right" about their claims and their apparent sales; I remember thinking "if they have that many sales, why am I not seeing them?" No one was - the sales were fictional. Anyway, it seems Goldman Sachs knew this but didn't bother telling anyone, never mind their own employees. And, through a series of changes and basic ignorance, L&H bought Dragon Systems for $580M in stock. It had to be that way as it turned out L&H didn't have two pennies to rub together. What they had was a set of cooked books and a fraud indictment on the way to them.
The net-net was that Dragon Systems went down with L&H; their technology was picked over and picked up for pennies on the dollar, Mr & Mrs Baker's chance at royalties, or even exploiting their own invention, gone with the shoddily managed deal. So now Mr & Mrs Baker are suing Goldman Sachs. They, in turn, are using obfuscation and contradictory arguments to deride the case, and have filed a blatantly silly and obviously vindictive countersuit against the Bakers'.
All in all, Goldman Sachs looks set to win this one. Just as they won with the financial crash - they helped precipitate it, profited from both ends and walked away shouting "Oh yeah, whatcha gonna do, little man?" And they prove, yet again, why basically corrupt corporations rule the world and the little guy doesn't stand a chance.
Carolyn Ann
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