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Goldman CEO Gets Special Bonus Months After Having Pay Cut as Punishment

Goldman CEO Gets Special Bonus Months After Having Pay Cut as Punishment

Goldman CEO Gets Special Bonus Months After Having Pay Cut as Punishment
David Solomon, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Inc. (Photographer: Hollie Adams/Bloomberg)

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is awarding a special bonus to Chief Executive Officer David Solomon just months after docking his pay for the bank’s role in a corruption scandal. 

Solomon and his top deputy, John Waldron, stand to gain more than $50 million, based on Goldman’s current share price, if the firm meets certain performance targets, according to a regulatory filing Friday. The board said the plan was put in place to “enhance retention in response to the rapidly increasing war for talent.”

Goldman CEO Gets Special Bonus Months After Having Pay Cut as Punishment

Earlier this year, the CEO was dealt a 36% cut to his annual compensation after the firm deducted a penalty for the bank’s 1MDB bribery scandal. The board reduced his package to $17.5 million for 2020, down from $27.5 million a year earlier, with Solomon required to return about $10 million to make amends for the firm’s criminal role in the looting of the Malaysian investment fund, the bank said in a January filing.

Goldman’s investment bankers and traders have cashed in on a frenetic period of dealmaking and market volatility, and the company’s shares are trading near all-time highs. In just the first nine months of the year, the bank’s revenue and earnings already shattered past full-year records. And there’s no sign of a slowdown amid expectations for continued volatility and escalated mergers-and-acquisitions activity.

Goldman said Friday that Solomon was granted 73,264 performance-based restricted stock units, and Waldron, the firm’s chief operating officer, was awarded 48,843 PSUs that are subject to performance and time-based vesting conditions over a five-year period. That works out to roughly $30 million for Solomon and $20 million for Waldron, based on Goldman’s current share price.

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