Former Goldman Sachs Banker Barred From Industry Over Fed Leak

A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who pleaded guilty to receiving documents that had been misappropriated from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York has been banned from the financial industry.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission agreed to a settlement with Rohit Bansal that bars him from any association with a broker, investment adviser or municipal securities dealer, according to an order released by the regulator Thursday. Bansal admitted last year to a misdemeanor over allegations that he obtained information that had been stolen from the Fed about a midsize New York bank. A federal judge sentenced Bansal to two years probation over the matter and ordered him to pay a $5,000 fine.

Bansal had worked at the New York Fed before joining Goldman Sachs in July 2014. While at the firm, he obtained about 35 documents on about 20 occasions from his friend Jason Gross, who was still a New York Fed employee. The information Bansal got from Gross related to a bank that was a Goldman Sachs client, according to a 2015 settlement between Goldman Sachs and the New York Department of Financial Services.

While prosecutors argued that Basal should serve as long as a year in prison, the judge overseeing his case said the documents he received were “essentially innocuous.” At the time, Bansal told the judge that he had “lost sight of what was right and acted in a way I know was wrong.” He left Goldman Sachs in October 2014.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jesse Westbrook in London at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jesse Westbrook at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net, Gregory Mott