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Mar 17, 2011

Smoke billowing around Goldman: more staff changes under way

Goldman Sachs has appointed Michael Carr and Dusty Philip to serve as new co-heads of mergers and acquisitions for the Americas, according to the company’s internal memo.

Last week, the global investment banking and securities firm announced that Tim Ingrassia, who has been in the position since 2008, is moving to a new role, joining Jack Levy and Gene Sykes as a co-chairman of Goldman’s global M&A.  Ingrassia joined the firm since 1986 and part of his responsibilities will include enhancing the firm’s global market share while developing new relationships.

Recently Goldman has been facing the heat as the staff shuffle coincided with the allegations brought by the SEC of Rajat Gupta, a former Goldman director who has been accused for leaking information to Raj Rajaratnam, co-founder of the now defunct hedge fund management firm, Galleon Group.  This case has once again placed the spotlight on the possible gaps in corporate governance practices within Goldman.

Reportedly, a wiretapped telephone conversation played earlier this week during Rajaratnam’s trial found Gupta guilty of breaching his duty of confidentiality as a board member when he told Rajaratnam that Goldman was mulling an acquisition of either Wachovia or American International Group.  

Gary Naftalis, Gupta’s lawyer, argues, ‘the SEC’s allegations are totally baseless. Gupta has done nothing wrong and is confident that these unfounded allegations will be rejected by any fair and impartial fact finder.’

Aarti Maharaj

Aarti is deputy editor at Corporate Secretary magazine