PARIS, Feb 18, 2010 (AFP) - France's finance minister urged US investment bank Goldman Sachs on Thursday to answer reports that it helped Greece cover up its huge debts which have rattled world markets.
"It's a question we must have an answer to," said Christine Lagarde, who as finance and economy minister has been at the centre of efforts by major world powers to tackle the financial crisis.
"We have to know for one thing whether there was dressing-up of the accounts, and whether it was legal at the time," she said, speaking on radio station RFI.
The New York Times reported that Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street investment firms had made financing deals with Greece that enabled it to mask the precarious state of its public finances from European regulators.
They reportedly helped it restructure its debts via complex financial instruments of the kind widely blamed for the collapse of the US housing market which sparked a global financial crisis.
"If it was legal, we have to ask whether it was conducive to stability -- probably not,"" Lagarde said of Goldman's role. "In which case, (we must ask) how we can avoid it happening again."
She said the EU's statistics division Eurostat, which gathers data from member states, was carrying out an investigation in Greece "to find out exactly what was done" by Greece and Goldman Sachs.
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