Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has dropped out of its role as adviser to United Company Rusal, and has been replaced by Bank of America Merrill Lynch (NYSE:BAC) to help them navigate the IPO waters.

UC Rusal is a huge aluminum company based in Russia which Goldman Sachs had been working with for some time before they unexpectedly dropped out of their work with the company about a month ago.

While it’s not known at this time why the company made this decision, there are some factors that could be pieced together which probably flesh out the scenario bringing them to where they now are.

Some have thrown around the idea that the decision by Goldman Sachs was based upon disagreements with disparate offices in New York, London and Moscow. But the more likely scenario is the founder of UC Rusal itself: billionaire Oleg Deripaska.

Allegedly Deripaska has connections to organized crime and has been denied a visa to the U.S. When asked about it recently, Deripaska refused to comment, but he did say he has no limitations on his travel to anywhere in the world at this time. State Department officials from the U.S. contradict that saying Deripaska hold no U.S. visa at this time.  

With Deripaska never having been charged with a crime, it is a little puzzling as to he decision by Goldman Sachs, although not hard to figure out.

What I mean by that is Goldman Sachs, of all financial institutions in the U.S., has probably been the most tainted by the economic crisis, and is looked upon by many as being dirty. Other major problems has been the placing of numerous former Goldman Sachs’ executives in high-level positions in the government, generating a lot of questions as to the propriety of that and how that has affected the bailout decisions and who was going to be allowed to fail and who wasn’t.

A growing number of people also believe Goldman was part of getting rid of their competitors in order to increase business and have more of a monopoly role in the U.S. economy and financial industry.

So any taint at this time, whether proven or not, will probably temporarily keep Goldman Sachs on the sidelines in deals like these, as they battle to restore their image and attempt to make it look like they’re keeping themselves away from shady characters.

The fact that Bank of America Merrill Lynch stepped in, and so-called sources said they had an internal debate as to whether to take the business or not, seems to be an orchestrated event, making it look like they struggled but finally gave in to take the business. Sure they did.

It seems that somebody in the government told Goldman Sachs to back out of it and they complied. Using a Russian billionaire who has never been charged with any crime as the possible reason for doing it is an interesting twist in an ongoing story. Goldman’s reputations is what this is all about, and it could be all a show to make them look like they’re battling the bad guys while losing some hefty business while they’re at it.

Again, a Russian billionaire that few Americans know is allegedly tied to organized crime, but has never been charged with it, yet Goldman Sachs is now having reservations about this guy because they’re concerned about their being perceived in a certain light as doing business with a criminal?

This sounds like it could be a marketing ploy to make Goldman Sachs look good at the expense of a Russian businessman most of us in the West have no way of confirming as to connections to unsavory characters, other than the word of the U.S. government who has been in bed with Goldman Sachs for years. I think I’ll safe my judgement on this till a much later time, as the more I think about it the more it looks like a con job.