Gordon Brown wants UK regulator to probe Goldman Sachs

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has asked the country's financial watchdog FSA to probe into the UK operations of New York-based investment bank Goldman Sachs after the US regulator sued it for mortgage securities fraud on Friday.

Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr show yesterday, Brown said, "I want a special investigation done into the entanglement of Goldman Sachs and the companies there with other banks and what happened."

Brown said hundreds of millions of pounds were traded, and "it looks as if people were misled about what happened."

Brown, who is facing elections next month, said this was one of the worst cases of 'moral bankruptcy' that he had seen.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had filed a civil suit on Friday against Goldman Sachs and one of its employees for defrauding investors to the tune of $1 billion in subprime-related financial product. (See: Goldman Sachs sued by US regulator for securities fraud)

Brown asked the UK Financial Services Authority to liaise with SEC and start an investigation immediately to find out whether Goldman Sachs was involved in similar deals in the UK.