Goldman Sachsexecutives sold shares in the bank after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last fall, the Financial Times wrote, citing filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The stock sales were worth almost $700 million and most of them occurred while the investment bank was benefiting from the $10 billion from the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), the paper said.
On Monday, banking analyst Meredith Whitney made a bullish call on Goldman Sachs , which is expected to report good earnings figures later on Tuesday.
For the eight-month period for which figures are available, Goldman partners sold more than $691m in company shares, even as the firm expanded its public float from 395 million to 503 million shares, the FT wrote on its Web site.
A Goldman Sachs spokesman told the newspaper that Goldman partners receive a big share of annual bonuses in stock, and that for many, stock sales are an effort to diversify their holdings.
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