By Suzanne Barlyn
(Reuters) - A former head mortgage trader for Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) has agreed to be barred from the securities industry and pay $400,000 to settle charges that he repeatedly mislead customers, causing them to pay higher prices, a U.S. regulator said on Tuesday.
Edwin Chin, Goldman's former head trader for residential mortgage-backed securities, generated extra revenue for the company by concealing the prices at which it had bought such mortgages, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement.
Chin then resold the mortgages at higher prices to customers while Goldman pocketed the difference, the agency said. His conduct began in 2010 and continued until he left Goldman in 2012.
The SEC said Chin also misled buyers by suggesting he was negotiating transactions between customers when he was merely selling the mortgages from Goldman’s inventory.
Chin neither admitted to nor denied the findings, the SEC said.
A lawyer for Chin could not be immediately reached for comment.
Goldman terminated Chin in 2012, a spokesman said.