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SA banker costs Goldman Sachs US$2 billion | The South African


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SA banker costs Goldman Sachs US$2 billion


London-based South African bankers parting shot loses Wall Street firm billions.
By Dan Swinhoe on 20 March, 2012 9:44 am in Business News, Featured, News / 1 comment / EDIT

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Elliot Wolf, Goldman Sachs, Gregg Smith, Headmaster, Resignation Letter, Wall Street Bank

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Goldman Sachs Group has seen $2.15bn of its market value wiped out after a mid-level executive, the Johannesburg-born Greg Smith, slammed CEO Lloyd Blankfeins management and the firms treatment of clients. Londonbased Smith hit the news after publishing his open resignation letter in the New York Times last week, calling the Wall Street bank morally bankrupt. After Smith made the accusations, the shares dropped 3,4% in New York trading on Wednesday, the third-biggest decline in the 81company Standard & Poors 500 financials index. Smith, who resigned as executive director and head of the firms US equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, had worked for Goldman Sachs for 12 years, starting as a summer intern. He joined the banks UK offices a year ago. In his letter Smith claimed, The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say I identify with what it stands for.
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And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it, he said. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief. The Stanford University economics graduate blamed the banks decline in moral fibre on its president Gary D Cohn and chief executive officer Lloyd C Blankfein. He believed this loss was the banks single most serious threat to its long-run survival. It makes me ill how callously people talk about ripping off their clients. Over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as muppets, sometimes over internal e-mail. The bank, whose client list ranges from governments to major international International removals to South Africa Weekly shipping to South Africa. Get great rates and great packing, now. Discover Your Global Passport Options! Research thousands of worldwide visa, passport and migration solutions using unique search technology. Open your account in OZ, before you go Open your account and send your funds at great rates with Australias best bank.

www.thesouthafrican.com/news/south-african-goldman-sachs-mans-damning-exit-letter.htm

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companies, was quick to deny the accusations levelled by Smith, saying they were disappointed by his assertions. The letter has attracted a great deal of public comment, many questioning why it took him so long to come to this realisation. But his former King David High School teacher has come to his defence. He was a remarkable young man, exceptionally intelligent with an integrity that is probably unequalled, Elliot Wolf, a retired headmaster said in an interview with Reuters. Wolf taught for 34 years at the private Jewish school Smith attended in Johannesburg before winning a scholarship to Stanford University in the US. Wolf called the banker An absolutely remarkable man with high principles. That was already part of his character when he was very, very young. In his letter, Smith named his proudest moments in life as: Getting a full scholarship to Stanford, being selected as a Rhodes Scholar national finalist, and winning a bronze medal for table tennis at the Maccabiah Games, known as the Jewish Olympics. He said these achievements had all come through hard work, with no shortcuts. Goldman Sachs today has become too much about shortcuts and not enough about achievement. It just doesnt feel right to me anymore.

1 Comments
Yoland Wallace 21 March 2012 at 2:06 am (Edit) If this is the truth then this Company is as bad as the terrorists who try to destroy our wonderful planet except that these vultures are destroying peoples lives through their investments and have no morals about putting their clients into poverty.. We have seen this before and this is where the underlying hatred of capitalism is creeping into societies worldwide
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