Former Goldman Sachs employee blows the whistle on unethical business practices

Sunday, October 28, 2012 by: John McKiernan
Tags: Goldman Sachs, whistleblowers, unethical business practices

(NaturalNews) Greg Smith, a Goldman Sachs mid level vice president, resigned in the spring of 2012. Upon his resignation, he decided to write a "tell all" book regarding his experience with the firm and why he left. Most of us are aware that there is some level of deception and corruption on Wall Street. After all, it's where people go to make big money. But why would an employee making half a million dollars a year decide to call it quits after spending 12 years with the company?

For Greg it was an environment gone so morally wrong that he couldn't bear to be a part of it anymore. In his book he details accounts of co-workers and supervisors knowingly giving their clients raw deals and joking about it after. One of the most common ways clients were cheated is that they were sold incredibly complex and sophisticated products that they didn't fully understand. Greg observed that the holy grail for many employees was when you could find a very unsophisticated client and sell them a very sophisticated product.

In this situation, employees had an opportunity to aggressively take advantage of clients who trusted them far too much. The reason this blind trust exists is that Goldman Sachs is known to be among the smartest and most successful investment banks in the world; which can be very attractive to investors. Unfortunately, what many clients may not fully be aware of is why the firm is so successful. It lies in the reality that they are usually looking out for themselves, rather than their clients.

The reason Greg's accusations are so significant is that, while many employees have left the firm, most likely for similar reasons, they have always kept quiet. Greg on the other hand, who has not been so quiet about his experiences, will almost certainly never land another job on Wall Street.

Goldman Sachs denies all of Greg's accusations, which is to be expected. Greg says that the goal of his book is to educate people on how Wall Street really works and where the ethics have gone terribly wrong. Greg's book is entitled "Why I left Goldman Sachs."

Sources for this article include:

http://www.usatoday.com
http://abcnews.go.com
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/49482525/ns/today-books/#.UIY_u8XA-So
http://www.nytimes.com

About the author:
See more health news articles by John McKiernan at The Holistic Truth