Fed penalizes Goldman Sachs for use of confidential data

By David Ingram

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve Board said on Wednesday it had ordered Goldman Sachs Group Inc to pay a $36.3 million civil penalty for the unauthorized use and disclosure of confidential information.

The Fed Board also said in a statement that it was seeking to impose a fine on a former Goldman managing director, Joseph Jiampietro, and bar him from the banking industry for what the board said was his and his subordinates' unauthorized use and disclosure of confidential information.

A lawyer for Jiampietro, Adam Ford, called the allegations against him demonstrably false and said his client would fight them.

"As Mr. Jiampietro has said from the start, he never requested confidential supervisory information from anyone, and never used it for his or anyone's benefit. The Fed has the law wrong and the facts wrong," Ford said in a statement.

Goldman said it was pleased to have resolved the matter, which centered on a former Goldman associate, Rohit Bansal, who admitted to illegally obtaining documents from a friend at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Goldman said it notified regulators.

"We previously reviewed and strengthened our policies and procedures after Bansal was terminated. We have no tolerance for the improper handling of confidential supervisory information," the bank said in a statement.

Bansal was fined but spared a prison sentence in March after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of theft of government property.

The Fed Board also ordered Goldman to implement an enhanced program to ensure the proper use of confidential supervisory information. (http://bit.ly/2aNQr5c)

(Reporting by David Ingram in New York; Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Jonathan Oatis)