By Christine Harper Nov. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Evans, the Hong Kong-based vice chairman who was Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s highest-paid executive officer last year, sold $12 million of stock this week, according to a company filing. Evans, 52, sold 70,000 shares at prices ranging from $170.98 to $173.47 on Nov. 23 and Nov. 24, according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing showed he retained 714,953 shares, which are worth $121 million at today’s closing share price of $168.92. Goldman Sachs, the most profitable securities firm in Wall Street history, set a record for compensation in 2007. The company slashed pay last year and had its first quarterly loss. Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, 55, and his six top deputies, including Evans, agreed to forgo annual bonuses. Evans, who is also chairman of Goldman Sachs’s Asia business, received total compensation last year of $5.3 million, including $1.7 million in tax equalization payments and $387,598 for international assignment benefits. Blankfein made $1.1 million in the period. Blankfein and three other executives are prohibited from selling any more than 10 percent of their stock under an agreement reached last year with billionaire investor Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway Inc. paid $5 billion for preferred stock and warrants in Goldman Sachs. Evans is not covered by that agreement. Another senior executive not covered by the agreement is Michael Sherwood, the firm’s London-based vice chairman and co- head of the European business. Sherwood, 44, exercised options on 158,125 shares over seven days from Nov. 13 to Nov. 23, according to regulatory filings. Fund Investments The options let Sherwood purchase the stock at prices of $82.875 or $91.61, about half the current level, before selling them at prices ranging from $171.43 to $178.05, booking a profit of about $13.7 million. Still, the company’s top 10 executives received $49.6 million from their investments in hedge funds and private equity funds during 2008, more than most of them earned in compensation after agreeing to forgo bonuses. Blankfein’s $1.1 million in total compensation was dwarfed by the $11.3 million he received in profits and other income from his fund investments, a proxy filing from the company showed earlier this year. To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net.

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