Goldman Sachs Asset Management has been accused of causing a pension scheme client’s money to be invested in sub-prime mortgage-backed securities in mid-2007 even though it knew, at the same time, that Goldman Sachs’ proprietary trading desk was short selling MBS “on a very large scale in order to profit from falling prices”.

The allegation is made in a claim form lodged with the UK's High Court by Vervoer, an €11bn Dutch pension fund that is suing GSAM for €250m for negligence. GSAM is contesting the suit. The claim was lodged with the court last month, and was placed in the public domain by the court last week and obtained by Financial News.