Greg Smith was Goldman Sach’s head of US equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He bid farewell to his 12-year career at Goldman Sachs on 14 March 2012 by penning a column for the New York Times describing a toxic and destructive work environment:  “To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money”, he wrote. The editorial, and a subsequent front page New York Times story about Smith’s departure has fuelled debate on professional ethics and accountability systems within large institutions, with opinion divided as to whether Mr Smith is a man of integrity, opportunistic or just plain naive.