Ex-Goldman trader charged in $118m fraud

A former trader with US banking giant Goldman Sachs was arrested Wednesday on criminal charges of fraud linked to a scheme to hide an $8 billion futures bet, officials said. Matthew Marshall Taylor "was in FBI custody as of early this morning," a source familiar with the government's case told AFP on condition of anonymity. The federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan said Taylor was due to appear before a judge on the charges "in connection with a scheme to accumulate and conceal an unauthorized $8 billion position in a trading account that he managed at Goldman, Sachs & Co." In November, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission filed a civil suit accusing Taylor of defrauding his employer "by intentionally concealing... the true huge size, as well as the risk and potential profits or losses associated." "On or about December 13, 2007, Taylor's scheme culminated in his concealment of an approximately $8.3 billion long (S&P 500) e-mini futures position," the watchdog said, alleging that Taylor ended up defrauding Goldman Sachs of $118.4 million. In December last year, the CFTC ordered Goldman Sachs to pay $1.5 million in a fine for the actions of its trader, saying "it failed to diligently supervise its employees for several months in late 2007."