GS Goldman Sachs Group Inc

By Liz Hoffman 

Alan Cohen, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s head of compliance and the longest-serving internal cop on Wall Street, is vacating his seat after 13 years.

Mr. Cohen will become a senior adviser to the firm's executive office, and will be replaced by the chief accounting officer, Sarah Smith, according to internal memos reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The moves come during a time of unusual turnover in Goldman's senior ranks. In recent months, two regional heads retired -- Michael Sherwood in London and Mark Schwartz in Asia -- and President Gary Cohn departed for a job in the Trump White House.

Prior to Goldman, Mr. Cohen spent 15 years as a partner at law firm O'Melveny & Myers LLP where he ran the white-collar crime and regulatory practice group. Before that, he was a federal prosecutor in New York and eventually headed a task force aimed at rooting out fraud in securities and commodities trading.

Mr. Cohen joined Goldman as partner in 2004, a rare instance of a person entering the firm at that level rather than having to work his way up the ranks. He has outlasted compliance chiefs at all of the bank's biggest rivals.

During his tenure, regulators ushered in dramatic changes to bank compliance. Goldman and its peers learned to live with the nearly constant presence of regulators checking trades and examining records: a time of "considerable scrutiny," Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein wrote in a memo announcing Mr. Cohen's move.

In recent weeks, Mr. Cohen has sold about 10,000 shares of Goldman stock as the bank's share price rallied. The proceeds were about $2 million, filings show, though the cost to exercise options means he pocketed far less.

Ms. Smith has been Goldman's chief accounting officer since 2002, and joined the firm-wide management committee in an expansion of that body in 2014. She is among the most senior women at a firm with relatively few at the top levels. Ms. Smith will be replaced by her deputy, Brian Lee.

Write to Liz Hoffman at liz.hoffman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 17, 2017 15:09 ET (20:09 GMT)

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