Dell had a camera on for a work project but forgot to turn it off, an internal review found. Photo / Getty Images
A working-from-home blunder has cost a Goldman Sachs banker millions of dollars after he accidentally sent a sex video to a junior female colleague, according to reports.
Adam Dell reached a settlement with another Goldman employee after unintentionally sharing explicit images as part of a work-related video, Bloomberg reported. He left the bank shortly after.
Dell had a camera on for a work project but forgot to turn it off and recorded himself engaging in sexually explicit activities, an internal review found.
After receiving the video, the woman hired a lawyer who sought around $30 million (NZ$48.1m) in damages on her behalf.
Dell, whose brother is the billionaire computer entrepreneur Michael Dell, ultimately reached an agreement to pay a multimillion-dollar settlement to resolve the 2020 incident. He has since left the bank.
Goldman Sachs has disputed the report, saying it contained “significant factual errors”.
A long-time entrepreneur and venture capitalist, Dell joined Goldman in 2018 as a partner after the bank bought a personal-finance app he founded.
The fintech entrepreneur is a known figure within New York’s elite social scene after engaging in a long-running on-again, off-again relationship with Padma Lakshmi, who is best-known in the US for hosting cooking show Top Chef.
The pair began dating in 2009, two years after Lakshmi’s divorce from novelist Salman Rushdie, whom she married in 2004.
Dell and Lakshmi have an 13-year-old daughter together and were involved in a high-profile and well-publicised battle over custody in 2012. The couple are said to have amicably split in 2021, according to the New York Post.
The sexually explicit video incident at Goldman Sachs triggered an internal review involving the highest levels of the bank, according to Bloomberg, including its chief executive David Solomon.
Tony Fratto, Goldman Sachs’ global head of communications, said: “As we told Bloomberg, their reporting contains significant factual errors and continues a pattern of leveraging unreliable sources. This reporting fails to meet fundamental journalistic standards.”
A spokesman for the bank declined to elaborate on what the errors were.
Dell was contacted for comment.
The case is not the first instance of sexually explicit videos being shares accidentally as a result of working from home.
Jeffrey Toobin, a former star legal reporter at The New Yorker magazine, was fired in 2020 after exposing himself on a Zoom call. Toobin did not realise he was still visible to colleagues after switching between screens.
He said at the time: “I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers.”
The report on Dell’s accidental explicit video also comes as companies on Wall Street and in the Square Mile attempt to fight off accusations that they have an overly macho culture and are failing to promote enough women to senior positions.
Goldman Sachs last month agreed to pay $215m (NZ$345m) to settle a long-running lawsuit that alleged the bank underpaid female bankers for years.
The Wall Street giant struck a deal with lawyers representing nearly 3000 female associates and vice presidents who worked at the lender and claimed they were undervalued by male bosses.
Goldman said it would hire an independent expert “to conduct an additional analysis on performance evaluation processes” at the bank, as well as conduct “pay equity studies”.
The bank has said that improving gender diversity in its top ranks is a key priority and has struggled with a legacy of some women feeling unwelcome.
Last year, a former female managing director released a book about her time at the bank, which included allegations of overt sexism and bullying.
Jamie Fiore Higgins, who worked at the investment bank for 17 years, claimed to have been “mooed” at by her male colleagues when she used a lactation room after the birth of her second child.
She also alleged that one of her bosses propositioned her at a work conference.
At the time, a spokesman for Goldman said it strongly disagreed with Ms. Higgins’ characterization of the bank’s culture and declined to respond to “anonymised allegations”.
Dell left Goldman in April 2021, according to his LinkedIn profile. He went on to found a cryptocurrency business called Domain Money last year.
The reporting of the alleged incident shortly before his departure comes as Goldman Sachs is said to be facing discontent among its own staff over the leadership of Solomon.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that some partners are unhappy with, among other things, Solomon’s hobby of DJing. The 61-year-old, who has used the stage name DJ D-Sol, regularly plays house music gigs and last year used the bank’s private jet to reach a gig in Chicago.
The bank has disputed that staff are unhappy with a spokesman saying last year: “David Solomon is singularly focused on the success of Goldman Sachs, tirelessly engaging with our clients and people,”