Top Goldman Sachs executives get shares on New Year's Eve

(Reuters) - Ten senior Goldman Sachs Group Inc executives, including Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, were on New Year's Eve given stock pegged to earlier restricted awards worth tens of millions of dollars.

The executives, which also include Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn, Vice Chairmen Michael Evans and John Weinberg, Global Head of Human Capital Management Edith Cooper, Chief of Staff John Rogers, General Counsel Greg Palm, Global Head of Compliance Alan Cohen, and Chief Accounting Officer Sarah Smith, got a total of 508,104 shares, according to multiple filings late Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

These executives sold 245,838 of those shares to cover tax obligations, and held on to the rest, which were worth $33.1 million. The shares were sold at a price of $126.24 on Monday.

The shares were not awarded as 2012 compensation; rather, they were grants that were awarded in prior years.

A spokesman for the firm said Goldman had no comment on the stock delivery.

Although the executives did not sell shares for profits on Monday, in recent months, top Goldman executives have been cashing in on stock awards granted in prior years that would have expired in November. Blankfein took home $5.9 million in proceeds from such transactions.

The transactions come amid a broader rally in bank shares. Goldman's stock soared 41 percent in 2012, to close the year at $127.56.

(This version of the story has been corrected to show that executives sold some stock received from restricted grants to cover tax obligations. Also corrects the amount of stock each received and the number executives who got shares.)

(Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra, editing by G Crosse)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-goldman-sachs-executives-shares-years-eve-103924298--sector.html

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