Business

Goldman’s new CEO reportedly urged whistleblower to drop complaints

Goldman Sachs is at it again.

David Solomon, the incoming chief executive of the once scandal-scarred bank, urged a top M&A executive in 2014 to drop complaints about unethical behavior at the Wall Street powerhouse, according to a report.

James Katzman, a Goldman partner in California, said he notified the bank that year to complain about “multiple instances” where colleagues attempted to pry market secrets from him, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.

Katzman complained after a colleague had asked him for confidential information about one of his investment-banking clients, the pharma giant Allergan, so he could give it to another client, the paper reported, citing sources close to Katzman.

Katzman, who was reportedly a stickler for rules in the otherwise rough-and-tumble world of Wall Street, was also irked that Goldman bankers had unsuccessfully tried to get a client’s son a job at the bank — a move that Katzman felt reeked of nepotism.

Solomon, then co-head of investment banking, tried to persuade Katzman to drop his complaints, telling him that “the concerns he had raised simply reflected the way Wall Street worked,” the Times reported, citing Katzman colleagues.

While Katzman felt that Solomon was trying to silence him, a Goldman source said that was not the intent, the report indicated.

Katzman left Goldman in early 2015 — after feeling the company was not taking his complaint seriously.

Solomon tried to persuade Katzman to stay, Goldman spokesman Michael DuVally told the paper.

Katzman did not comment for the Times story.

The colleague who asked Katzman for the confidential information was not identified.

Katzman was also flustered when his first notification was not investigated by an outside law firm — as was the practice — but by a deputy to the bank’s general counsel.

“The legal department conducted an exhaustive investigation of the matters Mr. Katzman raised in accordance with our whistleblower policy,” DuVally added. “We did not find that confidential client information was shared with other clients.”

Goldman’s reputation was sullied roughly nine years ago amid reports it put its interests before those of its clients.

Goldman executives have worked hard since then to restore the bank’s stellar reputation.