Goldman Fires Top Euro Block Trader For Mysterious Compliance Reasons
By: Goldman Sachs has canned the managing director of its European block trading division for "failing to make proper disclosures to the bank's compliance department," the Financial Times reports.
Alexandre Harfouche, who was promoted to managing director less than a year ago, was fired at the end of last month and it appears he hasn't picked up a new gig yet. According to the FT article, Harfouche is still listed as "inactive" with the Financial Services Authority, the UK's financial reglulator.
Harfouche has worked on some pretty notable stock trades, such as the sale of Renault's$4.2 billion stake in Volvo in October. So why exactly was Harfouche kicked to the curb?
Well, we're not exactly sure.
The FT reports that Goldman would not give exact reason as to why Harfouche was fired, but it also reports that people close to the matter said no securities laws were breached and no clients were put in harms way by any of Harfouche's actions.
So basically, we're pretty much left in the dark with why they let this guy go. But according to BusinessInsider, someone from the firm said this sort of thing is becoming more frequent.
"This isn't first compliance issue to surface. There have been plenty of high profile employees being fired or disciplined lately," a source told BusinessInsider.
The message here? If you are a higher-up in the firm, better start watching your back.
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