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10 Jul, 2014

Inside a Goldman Sachs trader’s twilight zone – Sydney Morning Herald

“Let’s be very clear,” Salem testified, “I was one of the most sought-after investment professionals in the mortgage industry.” Goldman Sachs, he claimed, was punishing him for his 2007 “self-evaluation” form, later made public by a US Senate investigation, in which he boasted of having manipulated the market for subprime mortgage bonds so that he might bet against them at higher prices.

As evidence that he had been led to believe his bonus would be nearly twice what he received, Salem introduced his mother. She’d been staying with him during Christmas 2010, after her home had burned down. Just before his disastrous bonus meeting he had told her what his superiors at Goldman had promised him.

The transcripts offered a partial view of the inner workings of both Goldman’s bonus politics and the minds of the people to whom Goldman pays the most money. Alas, the day after it appeared, Goldman succeeded in getting all documents from the dispute sealed. And yet, somehow, perhaps as the result of a technical glitch inside Goldman Sachs, one document has still slipped through.

Read the rest: Can this be real? Inside a Goldman Sachs trader’s twilight zone.