The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, who probes the financial crisis, subpoenaed Goldman Sachs Group over its failure to hand in the relevant documents to the panel. Instead of providing the necessary files and grant interviews in connection with the panel's probe Goldman flooded the panel with 2.5 billion pages of records.

Responding to the panel’s request for the documents the company produced 5 terabytes of records, with each terabyte containing 500 million pages of digitized records, FCIC Chairman Phil Angelides told reporters on a conference call.

FCIC Vice Chairman Bill Thomas said Goldman, knowing the panel's limited resources, had sent commission staff hunting for a needle in a haystack.

"We expect them to provide us with the needle," Thomas said.

The FCIC called Goldman's response "abysmal." Angelides and Thomas said other banks had received and complied with similar FCIC requests.

Goldman spokesman Samuel Robinson said in a statement that "we have been and continue to be committed to providing the FCIC with the information they have requested."