After denouncing in an open letter the unethical practices of U.S. multi-national bank Goldman Sachs, Greg Smith made a new series of revelations in the “60 Minutes” CBS show, according to The Huffington Post.
According to the former vice president of Goldman Sachs, the institution and the whole Wall Street have a great advantage from uninformed customers, the ones that don’t understand the complex mechanisms of bank operations. They are a real godsend for Goldman Sachs. The target, according to Smith, are those who own pension funds – they are directed to investments that the bank knows from the start that are bad.
“To bring in an unsophisticated client is the golden prize for Goldman Sachs,” Greg Smith told host Anderson Cooper. “The fastest way to make money on Wall Street is to take the most sophisticated product you have and try to sell it to the least sophisticated customer,” added the banker.
Smith was present in the CBS show to promote his book “Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story”, a work in which he is critical of business practices and is revealing some disturbing details of the bank management.
In an open letter, published immediately after his resignation this spring, Smith denounced the “moral bankruptcy” of the bank chiefs. According to him, former colleagues used to call the bank customers “Muppets” and the environment has become, in recent years, “toxic and destructive.”
Despite accusations, the former employee of Goldman Sachs said on CBS that he loves the institution where he worked 12 years, and that his attitude shouldn’t be seen as a betrayal, but a way to warn customers about these practices .
Goldman rejects Smith’s allegations, according to which the bank puts its own interests above those of customers. According to company representatives, the former executive left the bank because superiors refused to promote him and double his salary.
Smith received a considerable amount to publish a book about his life and his time on Wall Street. Publisher Hachette won the exclusivity for the publication of the book, giving the former CEO of Goldman Sachs $1.5 million in advance. Smith was making $500,000 in salary at Goldman Sachs.
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