[ by Melanie Gretchen ] Goldman Sachs has agreed to settle allegations of conflict of interest.  According to the SEC and FINRA, the bank did not have adequate policies to prevent research from being passed inappropriately to preferred clients, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.  The firm's $22 million penalty will resolve charges by both regulators, the sources said anonymously because the settlement has not yet been made public. Precedent. The case against Goldman may follow the way of a case the bank settled last year with Massachusetts securities regulators, several sources said.  In that instance, the firm shelled out $10 million to resolve civil charges that it had improperly passed analysts' hot stock tips to preferred clients.  In addition, it admitted that managers had approved private meetings of traders and stock analysts, known as "huddles," as approved by managers.  Such an admission was rare for civil settlements, where defendants typically will neither admit nor deny all of the allegations. Prior to that, in 2003, Goldman was among other Wall Street firms that settled over conflict-of-interest allegations involving their research analysts.  They collectively paid $1.4 billion to resolve claims that they issued overly optimistic research on companies to win their investment banking business. Current Settlement. In the upcoming settlement with the SEC, Goldman is expected to admit to a similar set of facts, one of the sources said.  The announcement could be made as early as Thursday, though the SEC agreed to the terms of the settlement a few weeks ago, several of those people said. To read C-I's account of how Goldman Sachs milked this cash cow, go to:   [Thursday's posting in Behind the News]. For further details, go to [CNBC, 4/12/12].