Goldman's Cohn leaves firm with $85 million en route to Washington

Goldman Sachs Group Inc's former president and chief operating officer Gary Cohn received $85 million in cash and stock related payouts as he leaves the Wall Street firm for a new role in the Trump administration.

Cohn received $20 million in total compensation for 2016, down 5 percent from 2015, according to a regulatory filing. This payout was comprised of a $1.85 million salary and $18.15 million in stock-related awards.

Cohn, who in December said he was leaving Goldman to become an economic adviser to the White House, was forced to divest his holdings in Goldman's stock to avoid potential conflicts of interest. These stock holdings totaled $65 million which Cohn was awarded in a cash payout.

Like many senior Goldman executives and longtime partners of the firm, Cohn also holds investments in private equity funds and hedge funds managed by the Wall Street bank.

Goldman said it would buy Cohn's stakes in those funds back from him, but did not say what the holdings were worth. In 2015, Cohn received more than $10 million from those investments, according to a proxy filing last year. (Reporting by Olivia Oran in New York; Editing by Tom Brown, Bernard Orr)