Singapore. A top Asian fund manager said on Wednesday the civil fraud allegations against massive Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs was a smokescreen to divert attention from the financial crisis in the United States.

Goldman is being investigated for fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Britains market watchdog.

It has also been learned that banks here in Asia are using the US banks woes to get an edge on multimillion-dollar fee-paying deals in the region.

Marc Faber, who runs Hong Kong-based fund manager Marc Faber, described the lawsuit against Goldman Sachs as a hunt for scapegoats amid economic problems faced by the US.

The target now is Goldman Sachs. You distract the masses with a villain, he said at the Asian Public Real Estate Association Forum in Singapore. Goldmans leading role on Wall Street, coupled with massive paychecks to staff and bumper profits, make it an obvious target, Faber said.

Rival institutions in Asia were seizing on Goldmans problems to try and elbow in front of the bank on major upcoming deals, sources familiar with the matter said.

Investment bankers have been lobbying executives at state-owned Agricultural Bank of China and pushing officials in Beijing to drop Goldman as an underwriter for the banks more than $20 billion IPO.

Rivals are also asking officials at state-controlled Bank of Communications to ditch Goldman from its joint global coordinator role in the Chinese banks $6.1 billion rights issue, the sources said, though there was no evidence either bank was considering pushing Goldman aside.

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