Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2014, reporting Bloomberg’s story of 18 June 2014. Salem’s age (35), his job at GoldenTree Asset Management and the status of the claim are as of then; the outcome of the arbitration is not reported.
Deeb Amin Salem, a young former trader at Goldman Sachs, is fighting the bank to get paid what he thinks is fair. The 35-year-old trader, who received a bonus of $8.25 million in 2010, says it was too low. He was expecting a $13 million bonus, according to Bloomberg News, which cited the arbitration filing before the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).
Amin Salem had received a $15 million bonus the year before, more than the bonus paid to Goldman Sachs’s CEO. He says he helped the bank make more than $7 billion that year, and so he wants to be paid the $5 million difference.
At the hearing, Salem said that, to be clear, he had been one of the most sought-after investment professionals in the mortgage industry. He said he had turned down many job offers in order to stay at Goldman, and that management had led him to understand his bonus would be $13 million, an incentive that helped him decide to stay.
Salem joined Goldman in 2001, helped the firm profit from the mortgage crisis and rose to head trader of the company’s structured products group.
The young trader is fighting to recover $16.5 million from the bank, broken down into $9.5 million in cash and 41,000 shares of deferred compensation, according to the filing cited by Bloomberg.
Salem’s claim has been rejected as “totally ridiculous”, but his lawyer has taken the case to the New York State Supreme Court.
Deeb Amin Salem now works as a portfolio manager at GoldenTree Asset Management.
When was the last time you felt undervalued for receiving a mere $8 million bonus?
Further reading
- What does it really mean to be rich? A Goldman Sachs banker explains
- Young people with a moral purpose should work for Goldman Sachs, not Google
Featured image: Kidfly182, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
