NEW YORK: Former Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn will donate to charity rather than return past earnings that the company sought to reclaim after the 1MDB bribery scandal, Goldman said yesterday.
The investment bank in October announced a plan to claw back compensation from former and current bank executives following a US$2.9 billion criminal settlement with the Justice Department over the massive international scandal.
The bank said it was seeking some US$174 million from a group of current and former bank leaders because of their role in “institutional failure” at Goldman, even though the executives were not involved in “any illicit activity”.
But Cohn, who served as a White House economic adviser in the first two years of the Trump administration after leaving Goldman, resisted returning the funds.
Bloomberg News reported that Goldman had sought more than US$10 million in back compensation from Cohn, but it was not clear if he planned to donate that entire sum. The report said he was giving to charities that work in pandemic relief and social justice.
Goldman applauded the move.
“We are pleased that Gary has chosen to support charitable organisations that are doing important work and put this matter behind us,” a Goldman spokesman said.