Goldman Sachs would like to tell you why Greg Smith quit, preferably before Monday when his new book "Why I Left Goldman Sachs" will also tell you.
Smith left because he wanted too much, according to an internal Goldman investigation, the conclusions of which were released to Bloomberg TV Thursday. Smith, the probe found, had asked his managers to double his pay to more than $1 million and promote him to managing director, but the firm denied both requests in the weeks before he left, Bloomberg TV reports. The bank recently ended its internal probe into Smith's allegations and gave select documents from its investigation to Bloomberg TV.
A Goldman Sachs manager wrote in a January email obtained by Bloomberg TV that "Greg Smith [is] off the charts unrealistic." Smith resigned two months later.
Smith's resignation came in the form of a now famous March op-ed in The New York Times, in which he blamed his decision to step down on the firm's "toxic and destructive" culture. Shortly after the NYT published the op-ed, Smith landed a $1.5 million advance for a book detailing his time at Goldman.
Smith didn't show any signs of dissatisfaction with Goldman's culture until a meeting with a partner at the firm on March 12, two days before his NYT op-ed was published, according to Bloomberg TV. In fact, Smith gave his colleagues an average score of a 9 -- the highest score possible -- for "culture and values" in his most recent performance reviews, the Financial Times recently reported.
Last year may have been a bad time to ask for such a big salary bump, since it was a time marked by disappointing earnings that resulted in smaller bonuses and layoffs at big banks, including Goldman Sachs.
Related
Before You Go
