The
then US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson (right) and his successor as CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd
Blankfein (left), spoke by phone 26 times in one week in September 2008 when
world leader in insurance and financial services AIG was bailed out,
a deal which directly benefited his former firm,
Goldman, a key counterparty of AIG, $13 billion in federal
money. In one day, Sept. 17, Paulson called Blankfein four times. Then after taking a call from President Bush in the evening, the Treasury Secretary called Blankfein yet again,
in order to keep the Goldman CEO constantly abreast of his
progress.
