Executives at US banking giant Goldman Sachs sold almost 700 million dollars worth of stock after Lehman Brothers collapsed in September, the Financial Times reported.

Most of the sales, worth 431 million pounds or 500 million euros,
occurred when the firm enjoyed the support of 10 billion dollars in US
government capital injections, the London-based newspaper said.

The FT based its report on compilings the newspaper had made of
filings by banking executives with the US Securities and Exchange
Commission.

The surge in selling among Goldman partners, at a time when the US
Treasury had thrown Wall Street a lifeline through its asset relief
programme, is likely to spark criticism from lawmakers in Washington, the FT said.

The bank, having survived the global economic crisis that included
the collapse of Lehman Brothers, is expected to report strong 2009
second quarter earnings later Tuesday thanks to rebounding trading
profits.

The turnaround comes after Goldman Sachs said in April it lost 1.02
billion dollars in December 2008, a day after it reported profit of 1.8
billion dollars for the first quarter.

The bank declined to comment on the FT report other than to say that
its partners receive a big share of their annual bonuses in stock, and
that for many, stock sales represent an effort to diversify their
holdings.

The bank has said it was repaying the Treasurys 10 billion dollars.

“We are grateful for the governments extraordinary efforts and are
pleased to be able to return to the US Treasury the funds that were
invested in Goldman Sachs,” said Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and chief
executive, last month.