Many top Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) executives were granted a lot of options before the financial crisis set in. Just recently, they took the opportunity to cash out.

According to the Financial Times, CEO Lloyd Blankfein exercised 90,681 stock options at a strike price of $82.875 and promptly sold the shares at prices between $148.97 to $152.00. That resulted in a gain of just $6 million. President Gary Cohn exercised 73,653 options and sold the shares for a $4.95 million profit. Chief Financial Officer David Viniar exercised 67,326 options and gain $4.52 million. And General Counsel Gregory Palm exercised 47,895 options for a gain of $3.22 million.

The options were granted in November 2000 and scheduled to expire this November. No doubt these executives are glad to wring such value from the options. There was a time back in 2008 when the stock price dipped the exercise price, rendering close to worthless. Had they exercised back in late 2007, when the stock was trading at $250 or so, the executives would have fared much better, but I'm not sure how such exercises would have worked with their tax situations. Back then, they no doubt thought the stock would keep on rising. Little did they know.

For more:
- here's the FT article

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