Goldman Sachs pay practices targeted in U.S. inquiries
August 11, 2009
Just a few weeks after reporting record quarterly profit and a bonus kitty of more than $11 billion, Goldman revealed in a government filing that “various governmental agencies” were looking into how the firm gave out compensation.
The company declined to reveal Wednesday which agencies were examining its pay practices and wouldn’t provide details. Goldman also said it had received government inquiries about its credit-derivatives business, another hot-button issue, and that it was cooperating with both inquiries.
Some regulators and lawmakers are perturbed that institutions that received government assistance during the financial crisis have turned around so soon after repaying the aid to uncork huge bonuses.
Goldman received $10 billion from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program last year. And even though it repaid the money plus dividends this year, critics have held up Goldman as a symbol of Wall Street greed.
In a sign of Goldman’s newfound place in the public consciousness, two national non-business magazines recently devoted lengthy stories to Goldman, and one, New York magazine, asked whether the firm was “evil.”
Goldman last month reported record quarterly earnings of $3.4 billion in the second quarter and has squirreled away $11.4 billion so far this year to pay bonuses. At that pace, Goldman could distribute an average of $770,000 this year to each of its nearly 30,000 employees.
The New York attorney general’s office said last week that Goldman ladled out $4.8 billion in bonuses last year, providing 953 people with at least $1 million each.
Please visit http://www.latimes.com/ for more details.
Random Posts
Comments
Advertisement
