Goldman Sachs' David Solomon invested in a luxury real-estate developer his bank failed to win business from
- Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon owns shares in a luxury real-estate developer, according to the NYT.
- The developer built a Bahamas resort where Solomon already has a home.
David Solomon, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs, is known to fly to the Bahamas, where he has a home.
Indeed, Goldman's two corporate jets made a combined 21 trips to the Bahamas — for both business and personal travel — over 15 months beginning in January 2022, Insider's Dakin Campbell has reported. One of those flights was taken soon after Goldman's second annual investor day concluded on February 28.
But Solomon's ties to the island nation apparently go a bit deeper. Emily Flitter of The New York Times reports that Solomon is a part owner of the Discovery Land Company, which developed Baker's Bay in the Bahamas. Solomon already had a beachfront home at the resort before investing.
Since September 20221, the CEO has been a "passive board observer" for Scottsdale, Arizona-based Discovery Land, a job that involves less than 8 hours of work a year, according to a Finra filing.
Tony Fratto, a spokesman for Goldman Sachs, told The Times that there was "no conflict whatsoever" between Solomon's investment in and relationship with Discovery Land and his position as CEO for the bank.
"It's absurd to think he'd guide his decision-making here for such a small personal investment," Fratto told the Times, noting that Solomon's investment was in the "single-digit millions."
Solomon invested after Goldman's failed pitch to advise
Solomon is friends with the founder of Discovery Land, Michael Meldman, according to The Times, and has DJ'd at his birthday party and other events at Baker's Bay. Meldman cofounded the tequila company Casamigos in 2013, along with George Clooney and Rande Gerber. (Casamigos was sold to liquor giant Diageo for $1 billion in 2017.)
Goldman bankers sought to pitch Discovery Land on its effort to sell shares to outside investors for the first time, The Times reports. The valuation the bankers gave for Discovery Land fell well short of $1 billion, and Goldman did not win that deal.
Discovery Land eventually sold $300 million of shares without the help of any bank in early 2021. Among the investors who bought those shares? David Solomon.
The CEO's investment was approved by the company's compliance department, Goldman's Fratto told The Times.
The issue, according to The Times, is that Solomon's "relationship with Discovery raises questions about the potential for conflicts of interest and distractions from his day job running an elite Wall Street bank."
Insider has previously reported that at least a small number of Goldman Sachs partners and other insiders have complained about Solomon's personal jet use, as well as his side gig as a DJ. At least one Goldman shareholder has inquired about Solomon's personal use of the corporate aircraft and the firm's cost-benefit analysis, according to two people who heard about the inquiry, Insider reported in March.
Goldman has said that the CEO reimburses the company for any personal jet use.