Goldman agrees to record SEC penalty over subprime business practices

The SEC announced a record penalty for a Wall Street firm to Goldman Sachs over its business practices surrounding subprime mortgage investments. $250 million will be returned to harmed shareowners and $300 million will go to the US Treasury.

Shareowners suffer large net losses in cases like this, all the more reason to monitor companies to prevent these incidents from happening in the first place. I wish the SEC would/could earmark some of these settlements for prevention via shareowner engagement tools. Congress should overhaul the SEC's funding and allow them to keep and redirect some of this money for preventive programs.