The controversy over his resignation became a media circus. Others branded him a traitor, a naive attention-seeking whiner. Some hailed Smith, who worked at Goldman for more than a decade, for sticking it to the biggest Wall Street investment bank. He became the only banker to serve jail time in the U.S. A month before Smith’s public exit, federal prosecutors charged a former Credit SuisseĮxecutive with falsifying bond prices linked to mortgage-backed securities. Occupy Wall Street protesters had been camped out in New York’s financial district for six months when Smith published his op-ed and the Tea Party movement, which got its start on CNBC, had become a political force in Washington. “Why I am Leaving Goldman Sachs” struck a nerve at a time when the country was still sifting through the rubble of the financial crisis, looking for villains to blame and justice to be served.