Setting aside, for a moment, whether we really need yet another senior Goldman Sachs executive in a big job in Washington, the nomination of Robert Hormats to be Undersecretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs raises anew troubling questions about Goldman’s role in raising money for a Chinese oil company that helped finance the genocide in Darfur.
Robert Hormats
Hormats played a leading role in defending PetroChina (NYSE:PTR) when Goldman took the Chinese oil company public in 2000. Worse, Hormats’ statements at the time, which included assurances that money from the public offering would not flow to the Sudanese government, were later investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which brought a case against Goldman that the company settled for $2 million. (Here’s a Washington Post story on the settlement.)
That’s not enough money, to be sure, to matter at Goldman, but still, it makes you wonder: How much due diligence did the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton do before nominating Hormats?
You’d think that misleading people about genocide might be sufficient cause to disqualify an executive, even one with impeccable Goldman ties, from a state department post.
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