Goldman Sachs Hires Markowitz From New York Attorney General

Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, hired David A. Markowitz from the New York Attorney General’s office.

Markowitz will be an associate general counsel and a senior member of the litigation and regulatory proceedings group, said David Wells, a spokesman for New York-based Goldman Sachs. Prior to joining the attorney general’s office in 2008, where he was chief of the investor protection bureau, Markowitz worked on the New York office staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for eight years.

Goldman Sachs paid $550 million in July to settle fraud charges filed by the SEC, the largest such settlement ever by a Wall Street firm. The Wall Street Journal said last month that Goldman Sachs bankers are under investigation for allegedly leaking information about health-care transactions to help certain investors. Wells declined to comment. The Journal reported Markowitz’s move earlier today on its website.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was elected in November to become governor of New York state. While in Cuomo’s office, Markowitz led investigations into sales of auction-rate securities, executive compensation, funds that funneled money to Bernard Madoff, and Bank of America Corp.’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch & Co.

At the SEC, Markowitz’s last role was as assistant regional director. He led insider-trading cases among others, according to a biography published on the Practising Law Institute website. He worked as a litigator at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP in New York after graduating from New York University School of Law and Lafayette College.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net.