Alibaba and the 26 thieves. 26 Goldman Sachs Alumni Who have been involved in billions in Bank fines that now Run the World (GS)
"The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs," Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi wrote in July 2009, "is that it's everywhere." Whether that makes the bank a "vampire squid," in Taibbi's now-famous phrasing, is debatable, but Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s (GS) ubiquity is hard to deny.
The selection of Steve Mnuchin as Treasury Secretary makes the second-generation Goldman partner (his father Robert Mnuchin was also a partner) the second of the firm's alums to secure a position in Donald Trump's administration: campaign strategist, Breitbart executive chair and one-time Goldman investment banker Steve Bannon ran as chief strategist and senior counselor in the new administration (counselor to the president was a cabinet-level position until 1993).
Mnuchin was not the last Goldman alum to join the Trump team, either. In December, NBC reported that Cohn had been picked to head the National Economic Council (NEC), the body that coordinates economic policy across different areas of the administration, and in late January he was officially on board. Initially, Cohn was rumored to be considered as director of the Office of Management and Budget — which is a cabinet-level position that requires Senate confirmation. The head of the NEC is not, however. Hence, the difficulty of getting the Senate's go-ahead for more than one ex-Goldman nominee might have factored into Trump's decision.
Finally, seven-year Goldman alum and SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci who had been tapped as director of the Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs in the Trump administration, but the offer was never formally accepted. The unit was later dismantled into two branches; Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Office of Public Liaison. Scaramicci was a senior advisor to the president.
Trump criticized Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail for accepting $675,000 in fees from Goldman Sachs for three speaking engagements in 2013, after she left her role as Secretary of State. Mnuchin, apparently referring to his former employer, echoed this line of attack in August, telling Bloomberg: "She's obviously raised a ton of money in speaking fees, in other things, from special interest groups."
To get a sense of just how deep Goldman's alumni network runs in global politics and policymaking – to say nothing of business – it's easiest to start in Washington, today, then work back – and out.
At Home
The Treasury
Mnuchin the third Treasury Secretary to emerge from Goldman in as many decades (Henry Fowler, who ran the department from 1965 to 1968, doesn't count, because he joined Goldman after leaving his government role). Hank Paulson, who headed the department from 2006 to 2009, became a partner at Goldman in 1982. Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary from 1995 to 1999, was the bank's co-chairman from 1990 to 1992. He helped to arrange the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which had separated commercial and investment banking.
Between serving as Treasury Secretary (a position he left in 2001) and director of the National Economic Council (beginning in 2009), Larry Summers increased his net worth by somewhere between $7 million and $31 million. He owes $2.7 million of that good fortune to speaking fees earned from, among other institutions, Goldman Sachs. (See also, Goldman Sachs to Gain in Trump Era.)
When Goldman was received around $1 trillion dollars of free bailout money in the aftermath of the financial crisis, Summers was not the only one in the Obama administration to have cashed checks from Goldman. Neel Kashkari, currently president of the Minneapolis Fed, left the bank with Paulson and started at the Treasury the same day as his recent colleague; he served as assistant secretary of the Treasury for financial stability from October 2008 to May 2009, administering the TARP paid to his former employer.
James Donovan is the latest addition to the Treasury Department as deputy to the Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin. Donovan spent nearly 25 years at Goldman, and was made partner in 2000.
To round out the Treasury picture (very nearly, see Gary Gensler below), former Goldman vice-president and managing director Mark Patterson was the Treasury Secretary's chief of staff from 2009 to 2015.
The Fed
William Dudley, president of the New York Fed and vice-chair of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) since 2009, hails from Goldman Sachs, where he worked as chief economist for the decade to 2007. He'll be joined on the FOMC by Kashkari and Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan, who worked as head of Asia-Pacific investment banking, head of corporate finance and global co-head of investment banking over the course of his 23-year career at Goldman. Together the three will constitute a quarter of the FOMC's twelve votes, assuming the two currently vacant seats are filled; if they remain empty, Goldman alums will account for 30% of the votes on the Fed's rate-setting committee.
Stephen Friedman, who chaired the New York Federal Reserve Board from January 2008 to May 2009, joined Goldman in 1966 and alternated between chairman and co-chairman of the board from 1990 to 1994. He divested from Goldman in 2002 in order to serve as an economic advisor in the George W. Bush administration, but rejoined the board in 2004. He kept his seat when he took on his role at the New York Fed, later explaining that his goal had been "to provide continuity during a time of financial market instability."
When Goldman converted from an investment bank to a bank holding company in 2008 – putting it under the New York Fed's regulatory purview – Friedman was required to sell his shares in order to avoid a conflict of interest. Instead he applied for a waiver from the Fed and, while he was waiting on a decision, bought 37,000 (extremely cheap, given the circumstances) shares in Goldman. The Fed granted the waiver, and he bought an additional 15,300 shares.
Friedman left the New York Fed in May 2009, citing the "distraction" of a "mis-characterized" conflict of interest. He was already several million dollars richer due to his well-timed investment in Goldman Sachs stock. Before departing, he oversaw the hiring of a new president: his old colleague William Dudley.
Friedman's son David Benioff, apparently no stranger to intrigue, is a co-creator of the HBO series "Game of Thrones." Friedman made a brief appearance on the show, the New York Times reported in 2014 – as a peasant.
Congress
Jim Himes, a Democrat representing Connecticut's 4th district, is the only currently-serving member of Congress to have worked for Goldman Sachs. He joined in 1995 and rose to the rank of vice-president during his 12-year stint at the bank. He was elected to the House in 2008.
Jon Corzine headed Goldman Sachs as chairman and CEO from 1994 to 1999, when he was pushed out by future Treasury secretary Hank Paulson. He consoled himself by winning a Senate seat representing New Jersey, which he held from 2001 until becoming state governor in 2006. After losing his bid for a second gubernatorial term, to Chris Christie in 2009, Corzine became chairman of MF Global Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 in October 2011 after losing $1.6 billion in clients' money (Bradley Abelow, a former Goldman executive who worked as Corzine's chief of staff from 2007 to 2008, was the firm's COO). The New York Fed, headed by Corzine's old colleague William Dudley, cut ties with the firm; the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, headed by another old colleague, Gary Gensler (see below), charged Corzine with unlawful use of customer funds in 2013.
Rahm Emanuel, who has held a litany of positions from congressman representing Illinois' 5th district to White House chief of staff to mayor of Chicago, collected checks from Goldman while he was running Bill Clinton's campaign finance operation, according
