DOJ

As part of the ongoing money-laundering probe of Malaysia's sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB, which is perhaps best known for Goldman's enabling and participation in what may end up being one of the world's biggest, multi-billion, cross-border embezzlement schemes, on Thursday the DOJ moved to seize a Picasso and Basquiat paintings given to Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as rights to two Hollywood comedies, in complaints filed to recover about $540 million they say was "stolen" from 1MDB (with Goldman's help).

While we doubt anything material will emerge for various obvious reasons, the NY Post reports that the DOJ is probing Goldman Sachs for alleged Treasury auction rigging: the charge is that Goldman, one of the 23 US primary dealers, won almost all Treasury bond auctions from 2007 to about 2011 even after the Treasury department established safeguards to maintain competitiveness. The case is said to center on chats and emails showing Goldman traders sharing price information with traders at other banks:

In the latest dramatic plot twist to emerge from Trump's accusation that Obama wiretapped the Trump Tower prior to the election, the NYT reports that FBI director James Comey asked the Justice Department this weekend to publicly reject President Trump’s allegation that Obama eavesdropped on the soon-to-be president. According to the NYT, which cites 'senior American officials' Comey has argued that the "highly charged claim" is false and must be corrected as there is no evidence to back them up, but the DOJ has not yet released any such statement.

The Dow Jones "Industrial" Average is suffering one of its worst intraday declines in weeks as a result of a 3.6% drop in UnitedHealth shares, which are sinking on news that the DOJ joined a whistleblower lawsuit against the insurer filed by a former executive claiming the country's largest health insurer overcharged Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars.

The company denied the allegations, with UnitedHealth spokesman Matthew Burns saying in a statement that "we reject these more than five-year-old claims and will contest them vigorously." 

House Democrats wasted no time in slamming President Trump's decision to fire the nation's top law enforcer after she refused to carry out his directives barring refugees and those traveling from Muslim-majority countries. In a Monday night political thriller, the White House said former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates "betrayed" the Justice Department at the threat of national security and was ousted just hours after she ordered DOJ lawyers not to enforce Trump's immigration order.