Goldman Sachs is raising Republican eyebrows when they recently enacted a set of rules that keeps its top employees from donating funds to Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency.
By senior employees, Goldman Sachs is referring to partners of the firm. These rules went into effect on September 1st in an attempt to avoid any implication of “pay-to-play.” Goldman Sachs, four years ago, had to dish out twelve million dollars when one of their Boston bankers that were in the bond-writing business regularly contributed to Tim Cahill, the Massachusetts state treasurer’s campaign for governor.
Pay-to-play rules were introduced by the SEC in 2010 when it became apparent that investment advisors were accused of trying to win business by donating to political causes. Now, if you make a contribution to a public official or candidate, you are banned from providing services with compensation for that official or candidate for two years.
Though the people that this effects within Goldman Sachs are only 467 people out of 30,000 employees, those four hundred and some are among the wealthiest individuals in the country. Since, Pence, Donald Trump’s choice for Vice President, is the governor of Indiana, making contributions to the Trump campaign is forbidden by the company.
As far as the Clinton-Kaine campaign, Kaine is a U.S. Senator from Virginia and does not fall under Goldman Sachs definition of a local official. This will allow anyone, including Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman who donated to the Clinton campaign when she ran against President Obama in 2008, to donate up to the federal maximum to the Clinton campaign.
In a recent statement to Politico, Goldman Sachs commented:
“The policy change is also meant to minimize potential reputational damage caused by any false perception that the firm is attempting to circumvent pay-to-play rules, particularly given partners’ seniority and visibility. All failures to pre-clear political activities as outlined below are taken seriously, and violations may result in disciplinary action.”
Blankfein has not come out and said who he plans on supporting during this year’s presidential race but from his past showing of support, we can assume that his vote will be placed on Hillary Clinton.
Take a look at some of Trump’s new illegal donation scams.
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