Well, if we listen to the SEC, what Goldman has done is nothing less than a sin, but the company is firmly standing by what it believes is right and that does manage to raise some doubts into how true the SEC's allegations are. But doubts or not, one thing which is a fact is that the whole incident has managed to throw some light into why and how things on the Wall Street starting going bad.

It seems like things started going bad in Wall Street when it started introducing people who should not borrow to those who should not lend. And when these people joined hands, disaster was not very far away, and that does not take a lot of logic to figure out.

An interesting observation that we came across some days back said that if the Wall Street is the Garden of Eden, Goldman Sachs is probably the snake, tempting innocent (?) borrowers and lenders. And there is a question mark after innocent because how naive these borrowers and lenders were to begin with is something which is highly debatable.

"Our clients' interests always come first. Our experience shows that if we serve our clients well, our own success will follow. Our assets are our people, capital and reputation. If any of these is ever diminished, the last is the most difficult to restore", Goldman's prospectus had said when the company went public back in 1999, and it does not seem like the firm has managed to really live up to its word.

The fraud charges slapped against Goldman by the SEC say that the firm intentionally held back some important restructuring information from the shareholders which led to them losing a lot of money, and we all know that it happened for sure.

Now, while terming the incident as a sin would be way too harsh, it most definitely is a mistake and management of the company should now ensure that it wins back the customers' trust and keeps it intact.