Goldman Sachs to pay $6M fine for incomplete, inaccurate blue sheets

Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday that it has fined financial giant Goldman Sachs $6 million for failing to submit accurate information in its blue sheets.

Blue sheets are documents detailing the specifics of transactions that are sent to the SEC.

"The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC for failing to provide complete and accurate securities trading information, known as blue sheet data, to the SEC. Goldman agreed to pay a $6 million penalty to resolve the SEC's charges," the SEC said in a press release Friday.

According to the SEC, Goldman Sachs submitted over 22,000 incomplete blue sheets over the past decade.

In total, the blue sheets were related to at least 163 million transactions.

According to the SEC, Goldman Sachs admitted responsibility and agreed to pay the fine voluntarily.

"The SEC's order finds that Goldman willfully violated the broker-dealer record-keeping and reporting provisions of the federal securities laws. Goldman admitted the findings in the SEC's order and agreed to be censured and to pay the $6 million penalty."

According to the SEC, Goldman Sachs self-reported a number of the errors and took steps to improve blue sheet submissions.

"The SEC's order also finds that Goldman engaged in remedial efforts to correct and improve its blue sheet reporting systems and controls, including conducting a full-scale review of its reporting program that resulted in the self-reporting of 29 of the 43 types of errors underlying the order and significant supervisory control enhancements," the SEC wrote.

New York Regional Office Associate Director Thomas P. Smith said, "firms must provide complete and accurate blue sheet data in response to our requests."