Criminal Enterprise: Goldman Sachs to pay $5 billion in bonuses

from the Sunday Times of London:


April 18, 2010
Goldman Sachs set to pay £3.5bn in bonuses


GOLDMAN SACHS, the world’s biggest investment bank that is now assailed by accusations of fraud, is poised to reignite controversy over bankers’ bonuses by paying its staff more than £3.5 billion for just three months’ work.

The bumper payouts will equate to about £110,000 a head for the firm’s 32,500 employees worldwide, with a handful of top traders expected to be in line for multi-million-pound bonuses.

Close to £600m is expected to be paid to the group’s 5,500 London-based staff for the first three months of this year. This is on a par with their remuneration in 2007, the last year of the boom.

The revelation of the enormous pay deals comes as Goldman prepares for a legal battle with the US government. The group was sued on Friday by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Wall Street regulator, over claims it defrauded investors of $1 billion. Goldman denies the charges.

Fabrice Tourre, 31, a vice-president at the bank who works in its London office, is also being sued for allegedly helping to create a mortgage-backed product doomed to fail because it was deliberately filled with risky loans to poor people. .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article7100961.ece

for lawyers and cigarettes.

:smoke: