Goldman Sachs has begun trawling through internal e-mails searching for the term 'muppet' in a bid to determine whether a former executive's recent high-profile claims about employees using derogatory language to describe clients is true, according to Reuters.
Last week Greg Smith used the New York Times OpEd pages to resign from his role as a Goldman Sachs executive director in spectacular fashion.
Among the many damaging claims he made was the assertion that "over the last 12 months I have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as "muppets," sometimes over internal e-mail". In the UK, 'muppet' is used to describe a stupid person.
According to Reuters, citing sources, Goldman chief Lloyd Blankfein told partners in a conference call this week that the bank takes Smith's claims seriously and is now scanning all internal e-mails in search of derogatory remarks about clients.
Goldman conducts company-wide email review: sources - Reuters