Goldman Sach's board and employees rallied around senior management, including chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein, after the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil fraud suit against the bank. The SEC claims Goldman devised a complex subprime mortgage investment that it bet against, despite selling it on to clients. Now the monolithic stature of one of Wall Street's leading lights has been brought low, and many of the bank's critics have had their darkest suspicions confirmed: That Goldman puts itself before its customers, despite it claiming the opposite. Blankfein, a former trader, made Goldman Sachs into a formidable trading operation, which some critics say was at the expense of its banking side. That means they believe Goldman pursued profit at any cost and ethical investing went out the window.