Goldman Sachs is reportedly on the cusp of settling one of the biggest criminal cases involving a Wall Street bank since the financial crisis: According to a Bloomberg News report published late Monday evening, the Vampire Squid has reached a tentative agreement with the DoJ to pay more than $2 billion in penalties - a figure that BBG noted is "broadly in line with analysts expectations" - and - here's the key bit - allows the bank to avoid all criminal penalties. That last bit is especially important, because, as we've chronicled over the past few years, many of the bank's top executives appeared to have been personally involved with the deal, which was initially brought in by Tim Leissner, formerly the bank's top man in Southeast Asia, before he was suspended over the deal, before agreeing to cooperate with the Feds against his former employer (where he reportedly told authorities about the endemic "culture of corruption" at play within the bank). Though we can't be certain, we suspect that the timing of former Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein's departure was influenced by the unfurling scandal; he suddenly left the bank right around the time that Leissner flipped. Word on the street was that Goldman would be made to admit guilt as part of the deal. Indeed, a leak about an 'imminent' deal published nearly 1 year ago claimed that the bank had reluctantly agreed to the plea. Apparently, the bank's legal team was able to avert this, amid whispers that connections between Goldman's representatives and the current leaders of the DoJ might create conflicts of interest (a negotiating tactic that the bank appears to have leveraged to its advantage; note the deal is reportedly coming just weeks before a close American presidential election).