Goldman Sachs’ chief executive David Solomon will get a $10m (£7.3m) pay cut for the bank’s involvement in the 1MDB corruption scandal.
1MDB was an investment fund set up by the Malaysian government that lost billions due to fraudulent activity.
The global web of fraud and corruption led to a 12-year jail term for Malaysia’s ex-prime minister Najib Razak which he is appealing.
Goldman Sachs called its involvement in the scandal an “institutional failure”.
Goldman Sachs helped raise $6.5bn for 1MDB by selling bonds to investors, the proceeds of which were largely stolen.
Prosecutors alleged that senior Goldman executives ignored warning signs of fraud in their dealings with 1MDB and Jho Low, an adviser to the fund. Two Goldman bankers have been criminally charged in the scandal.
Mr Solomon’s pay would have been $10m higher but for the actions its board of directors took in response to the 1MDB saga, Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday.
While disclosing his salary had dropped to $17.5m for 2020, the bank stressed that Mr Solomon was unaware of the corruption…
Mr Solomon’s package consists of $2m in cash base pay, a $4.65m cash bonus, and $10.85m in stock-based compensation…
Despite the costs and fines from the fallout from the 1MDB scandal, 2020 was a bumper year for Goldman’s businesses with annual revenue of $44.6bn, its highest since 2009.
The US-based bank got a huge boost from the recovery in global stock markets from the depths of the coronavirus recession.
If Mr Solomon had been a poor thief snatching a bag of rice for his family in KL he would have received several lashings and time in jail.
He and everyone else knows that the top ranks of Goldman Sachs were perfectly aware that all was not well over the dirty deal to steal billions from the people of Malaysia – he may or may not have left the sordid details to his very senior underlings Tim Liesnner and Roger Ng, but the whole gang (including him) pocketed the mega-bonuses out of the ludicrous ‘turn a blind eye’ fees, which was what mattered.
Were this matter to go to court he would be judged no less guilty than Najib Razak in terms of trying to push the blame onto those beneath him. Ask the Asia boss, who protested the deals, was pushed aside and left the bank. Ask the shareholders, who have a detailed action against the bank for tanking stocks and who name David Solomon personally in their suit.
Goldman Sachs has done brilliantly off the Trump/Coronavirus seesaw games of 2020 and a mere $10 million dollar pay cut is of no import. Nor is the paltry settlement secretly passed to Malaysia under cover of non-disclosure agreements (which Goldman formerly pledged not to apply).
Mr David Solomon is a crook in charge of a powerful bank, together with a band of fellow crooks, which makes this institution a dangerous liability the world over. Any poor country that sees these suits arriving to discuss ‘opportunities’ with their dodgy political leaders should raise the alarm in fear – they are out to fleece the poorest of the globe (in between regular worship and charity donations doubtless)