Goldman's Libya Salesman Was a Little Too Good

I used to sell equity derivatives at Goldman Sachs, which puts me in fascinating company.1475165523011 For instance there is Youssef Kabbaj, a London-based equity derivatives salesman who, in 2008, was described internally as "perhaps Goldman’s top salesman globally." Banks tend to throw around superlatives pretty casually, so I don't know how true that is, but if it is true then we should pause to hold a small parade for him. Look: 2008 was the final year of the greatest boom in financial structuring the world has ever seen, and Goldman was -- I am biased here -- perhaps the bank with the greatest mastery of financial structuring, and Kabbaj was, apparently, its greatest salesman of financial structuring, "possibly the No. 1 rainmaker at the world’s most profitable investment bank." He was at the very pinnacle of a certain sort of finance that we now look back on with awe and nostalgia and not a little bitterness. He was just 31. Good for him.

Then it all went horribly wrong in July 2008, wrong enough that Kabbaj had to call in Goldman special forces from his hotel in Libya: