Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman said that she regrets taking part in a now-banned stock sale practice at Goldman Sachs and said she left the investment bank’s board after 15 months because she “wasn’t a good fit.”
The Republican front-runner in the California governor’s race sought to defuse criticism about her connections to the firm, which have put her on the defensive in the primary.
Whitman’s ties to Goldman have become a rallying point for her opponents, especially as the firm faces federal fraud charges.
Goldman Sachs paid Whitman $475,000 for her board service, but she left in 2002 after questions were raised about whether Goldman gave her preferential access to stocks that were flipped quickly for huge profits in exchange for eBay’s investment banking business. She settled a shareholder lawsuit over the practice, which is known as “spinning” and is now banned.