The chairman of the U.S. Senate's investigative subcommittee said he believes Goldman Sachs officials made misleading statements about their trading during the financial crisis and should be investigated criminally.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said on Wednesday that he plans to refer Goldman officials, and potentially officials from other organizations, to the Justice Department for possible prosecution and to the Securities and Exchange Commission for possible civil proceedings.

“In my judgment, Goldman clearly misled their clients and they misled the Congress,” said Levin, the chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

Levin’s statement came after a two-year, bipartisan investigation by his subcommittee. In one widely covered hearing in April 2010, as part of the investigation, senators sparred with Goldman officials over a mortgage-related product that a Goldman executive had referred to in an e-mail as a “shitty deal.”

Levin and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), the subcommittee’s ranking Republican, are releasing a 639-page report (PDF) on the financial crisis, along with 5,800 supporting documents. The report focuses on the actions of Goldman, Washington Mutual Inc., the U.S. Office of Thrift Supervision, credit ratings agencies and Deutsche Bank. The two senators spoke about the report at a news conference on Wednesday.

Levin must still go through a process to finalize any referrals, but he made his position clear. “We will be referring this matter to the Justice Department and the SEC,” Levin said.

Asked about Levin’s plans, a Goldman spokesman released a statement on Wednesday defending the testimony of company officials. “The testimony we gave was truthful and accurate and this is confirmed by the Subcommittee's own report,” the statement says in part.

The spokesman, Michael DuVally, declined to comment on whether the company or its executives have hired counsel in response to the report. Last year, in negotiating the settlement of an SEC complaint, Goldman assembled a legal team led by Sullivan & Cromwell’s Richard Klapper and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom’s Gregory Craig.