• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

2

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

3

Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster

1

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

2

As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch

3

Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
FinanceWall Street

Goldman Sachs Elevator book criticizes Asia hiring at Goldman and Citi

By
Stephen Gandel
Stephen Gandel
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Stephen Gandel
Stephen Gandel
Down Arrow Button Icon
July 7, 2015, 11:30 AM ET
78781444
Businessmen Waiting for ElevatorPhotograph by Getty Images/Fuse
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Wall Street was improperly pushing the door-open button for the next generation of Asia’s rich and powerful.

That’s one of the claims made by John LeFevre, author of the notorious Wall Street-themed Twitter account GSElevator and a soon-to-be published book, Straight to Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, and Billion-Dollar Deals.

In the book, LeFevre says that Citigroup and other Wall Street firms in the mid-2000s shifted their hiring practices in Asia, increasingly filling junior ranks with children of wealthy and powerful business leaders and government officials. LeFevre says many of the hires were “dumb and undeserving,” but came with the “implicit expectation” that it would win business for the banks from the recruits’ influential families.

“We all understand and expect that Chelsea Clinton can walk into a job at McKinsey or at Marc Lasry’s hedge fund. But in Asia, it has increasingly become the rule and not the exception,” LeFevre writes in the book, which is being published by Grove Atlantic and comes out in mid-July.

The allegation that the banks handed out jobs to Asia’s young elite as bribes to win business from China’s state-run entities is not new. Regulators have been looking into the issue for more than two years. The initial investigation appeared to be focused on JPMorgan Chase, but it has since extended to all the banks, including Citi and Goldman. Some JPMorgan executives linked to the hiring probes have left the bank. Yet there have been few first-person accounts of the hiring practices, and no cases have been brought.

LeFevre points the finger at Goldman Sachs and others, but he only offers direct evidence of the hiring practices at Citi, which is one of the oddities with the book, and with LeFevre. Even though he became known for @GSElevator, which led to the book deal, LeFevre never worked at Goldman Sachs. That fact, when it came out, nearly squashed the book deal, and he was dropped by his initial publisher after that came out. He worked at Citigroup from 2001 to 2008, before joining a smaller investment firm. But I guess LeFevre, who modeled the Twitter account on a similar one about magazine company Conde Nast, thought @CitiElevator wouldn’t draw many followers.

LeFevre says when he first got to Hong Kong in 2004, the hiring protocols at Citi were about the same as they were in New York. But he says by mid-2006, many of the new analysts in his office had come from a pool of resumes sent in by people “looking for favors.” Both Citi and Goldman declined to comment for this article.

In another part of the book, LeFevre explains how he and other bankers would regularly share non-public information about upcoming deals with hedge funds. LeFevre ran a bond syndicate desk in Hong Kong. The claim echoes a central point in another recently published Wall Street book, Why I quit Goldman Sachs, by Greg Smith. But unlike Smith, LeFevre shrugs off this practice—which he was a part of—that borders on insider trading as part of doing business. LeFevre also accuses the the Wall Street firms of essentially engaging in price-fixing, promising not to undercut each other on deals. LeFevre says he attended at least one secret price fixing meeting, but he says the agreement never really held.

That’s the best of the dirt LeFevre appears to have on Wall Street, aside from pointing out the obvious fact that the financial services industry has plenty of drug-addled jerks. Unlike Smith’s indictment of Wall Street as a place that regularly takes advantage of its clients, LeFevre seems much more interested in explaining just how good of a time he had as an investment banker. One of the chapters of Straight to Hell is titled, “Because they were muppets.”

The book reads as one twenty-something’s long night out. There are relatively few pages that don’t contain the words “hooker” or “cocaine.” Many pages have both. Thirty years after we learned of the misdeeds of the Masters of the Universe, much of the shock factor is gone. As a Twitter account, @GSelevator had some freshness and originality: It gave us a glimpse into Wall Street’s secret seething disdain for the rest of us at a time when financiers knew they had to be outwardly apologetic. It seemed to be the voice of Wall Street that Wall Street didn’t want to you to hear.

LeFevre in book form comes off as someone desperate to get attention who you can’t shut up. Like any elevator conversation that continues when the person exits on your floor, what LeFevre has to say becomes less interesting the longer it goes on. Even the tweets LeFevre includes in the book don’t seem as witty as they did on social media. Elevator missives translate well for Twitter because, like elevator conversations, tweets quickly vanish. I found myself wishing, unsuccessfully, that LeFevre’s book would do the same.

About the Author
By Stephen Gandel
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Finance

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Finance

Mark Zandi, Moody's chief economist.
EconomyU.S. economy
‘It’s fair to ask whether it was worth it’: The Iran war has cost Americans $1,000 per household—and that’s a conservative estimate, Mark Zandi says
By Tristan BoveJuly 1, 2026
4 hours ago
Melania Trump NFT earnings surge 28x in 2025 as first lady rakes in nearly $17 million in total earnings, filing shows
PoliticsDonald Trump
Melania Trump NFT earnings surge 28x in 2025 as first lady rakes in nearly $17 million in total earnings, filing shows
By Mia OsmonbekovJuly 1, 2026
4 hours ago
Donald Trump sits at his desk in the Oval Office, smiling and with his hands folded in front of him.
PoliticsDonald Trump
Trump got a $78K pension from the Screen Actors Guild in 2025 because he appeared in Home Alone 2 in 1992
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 1, 2026
5 hours ago
Current price of Bitcoin for July 1, 2026
Personal FinanceCryptocurrency
Current price of Bitcoin for July 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 1, 2026
9 hours ago
Current price of Ethereum for July 1, 2026
Personal FinanceEthereum
Current price of Ethereum for July 1, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 1, 2026
9 hours ago
Top CD rates from major banks July 1, 2026: Chase CDs, Bank of America CDs, Citibank CDs, and more
Personal FinanceCertificates of Deposit (CDs)
Top CD rates from major banks on July 1, 2026: Chase CDs, Bank of America CDs, Citibank CDs, and more
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 1, 2026
9 hours ago

Most Popular

MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
Success
MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America's $19.2 billion in megagifts last year
By Sydney LakeJune 25, 2026
7 days ago
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
Big Tech
As Big Tech showers employees with perks to win the talent war, Nvidia built a nearly $5 trillion company by making people pay for their own lunch
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 1, 2026
15 hours ago
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
Success
Philanthropy leader at Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge says children of billionaires are pushing them to give their wealth away faster
By Preston ForeJune 27, 2026
4 days ago
The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
Newsletters
The Supreme Court's birthright citizenship ruling hands the U.S. economy a $7.7 trillion win
By Diane BradyJuly 1, 2026
13 hours ago
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
Success
Elon Musk on MacKenzie Scott giving away $26 billion of her fortune: 'Sadly,' it makes the world a worse place
By Sydney LakeJune 29, 2026
2 days ago
The U.S. Army is opening military bases to private billions — here's why that changes everything for the next 250 years
Commentary
The U.S. Army is opening military bases to private billions — here's why that changes everything for the next 250 years
By Marc AndersenJune 30, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.