Proving yet again that they will do anything to make money, including selling children into the sex trade, Goldman Sachs was shocked to find out they were caught financing a marketplace for exploitation.
This emporium for girls and women — some under age or forced into prostitution — is in turn owned by an opaque private company called Village Voice Media. Until now it has been unclear who the ultimate owners are.
That mystery is solved. The owners turn out to include private equity financiers, including Goldman Sachs with a 16 percent stake.
Goldman Sachs was mortified when I began inquiring last week about its stake in America’s leading Web site for prostitution ads. It began working frantically to unload its shares, and on Friday afternoon it called to say that it had just signed an agreement to sell its stake to management
This 16% of ownership may seem small but it was the largest stake carried by an outside shareholder.
How could they know there was such goings on in this advertising realm?
A Goldman managing director, Scott L. Lebovitz, sat on the Village Voice Media board for many years. Goldman says he stepped down in early 2010.
Being on their board may make one aware of the goings on with any business, one should hope.
FYI Village Voice media is the group behind the following publications:
Publications & Websites:
Village Voice / New York
LA Weekly / Los Angeles
Westword / Denver
New Times / Phoenix
Houston Press / Houston
Observer / Dallas
Riverfront Times / St. Louis
New Times / Miami
City Pages / Minneapolis
New Times / Broward
OC Weekly / Orange County
Seattle Weekly / Seattle
SF Weekly / San Francisco