Senate report

Court Declines to Consider U.S. Senate Report on Financial Crisis in Deciding Motion to Dismiss

On May 18, 2011, Judge Jones of the Southern District of New York rejected plaintiff’s request that the Court consider a U.S. Senate report entitled “Wall Street and the Financial Crisis: Anatomy of a Financial Collapse” in deciding defendants’ motion to dismiss. The plaintiff’s complaint alleges that Goldman Sachs committed fraud in connection with the sale of a collateralized debt obligation (“CDO”) with collateral consisting of subprime mortgage-backed securities. Plaintiff asserted that the Senate report contains an extensive discussion of the CDO sale at issue as well as citations to internal Goldman emails that, according to plaintiff, call into question defendants’ assertions on the motion to dismiss. The Court held that the Senate report went beyond what the Court could consider on a motion to dismiss and that plaintiff also failed to provide the Court with any basis for taking judicial notice of the report. Decision. Senate Report.