(The Wall Street Journal) -- Mark McGoldrick earned about $70m (€52m) in pay last year -- nearly $200,000 a day -- placing bets using Goldman Sachs' money. He was one of Goldman's highest-paid employees. Turns out it wasn't enough.

Internally dubbed "Goldfinger" for running one of Goldman's most-profitable units, Mr. McGoldrick delivered a big chunk of the firm's 2006 profits, people familiar with the matter say. He co-founded and built the firm's secretive "special-situations group," Goldman's elite but opaque money-making machine that buys and sells eclectic assets including British power plants, Japanese golf courses and Thai auto loans.