goldman sachs ceo david michael solomon attends a discussion on women entrepreneurs through finance and markets at the world bank on october 18 2019 in washington dc goldman sachs ceo david solomon saw his pay slashed by just over a third for 2020 as part of a punishment for the banks role in the 1mdb scandal the bank which saw its highest revenue in over a decade last year despite the coronavirus pandemic has admitted to wrongdoing during its time working for a now infamous malaysian government development fund called 1malaysia development berhad or 1mdb the pay cut for solomon which at 10 million constitutes roughly 36 of his yearly salary reflects prior penalties imposed on the bank and not solomons own conduct while none of messrs solomon waldron or scherr was involved in or aware of the firms participation in any illicit activity at the time the firm arranged the 1mdb bond transactions the board views the 1mdb matter as an institutional failure inconsistent with the high expectations it has for the firm a goldman sachs securities filing from jan 26 read solomon has been ceo of the bank since 2018 the compensation reductions also apply to john waldron goldmans president and chief operating officer and stephen scherr goldmans finance head who each received a pay cut of 7 million the cuts are part of a broader effort by the bank to claw back 174 million in pay from former and current executives as part of its penalties the moves are part of the boards broader determination regarding the compensation of certain past and current members of senior management in light of the findings of the government and regulatory investigations and the magnitude of the firms settlement of government and regulatory matters relating to 1malaysia development berhad 1mdb the sec filing wrote solomons pay package is comprised of 2 million in base salary a 465 million cash bonus and 1085 million compensation in stock form which is based on the banks performance his pay for 2020 was then 175 million instead of the 275 million he received in 2019 despite the fact that last year turned out to be a bumper year for the bank hitting revenue of 4456 billion its highest since 2009