NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Controversial telecom analyst Jack Grubman has resigned from investment bank Salomon Smith Barney, according to a company memo obtained by CNNfn.

Grubman has been widely criticized for his close ties to now bankrupt companies WorldCom Inc. and Global Crossing Ltd., as well as his recommendation of their shares as they tumbled to become nearly worthless.

Jack Grubman, who resigned as telecom analyst at Salomon Smith Barney Thursday, testifying before a House committee last month.

Nevertheless, Grubman is walking away with a $32.2 million separation package, including $12 million cash from options, a forgiven $19 million loan, severance and stock options, a source familiar with the package told CNNfn.

The total value of the package is based on what is left on Grubman's 1998 contract, the source said, adding that most of the package already has been paid. Grubman will receive $1.2 million over the next year and a half, and his options are being bought out by the company.

The forgiven loan was for $15 million to be paid back over five years with interest, the source said.

Grubman, whose departure from Salomon was by mutual agreement, according to the source, defended his work in his letter of resignation, which was included in the company's memo. Grubman said he was the unfair subject of second-guessing and unfair criticisms.

"I understand the disappointment and anger felt by investors as a result of that collapse [of telecom stocks]," he wrote, but added, "I am nevertheless proud of the work I, and the analysts who worked with me, did."

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Grubman went on to say he felt unfairly singled out by negative statements, which made it difficult to do his job and which have personally affected his family.

Salomon, a unit of financial services provider Citigroup (C: Research, Estimates), faces at least one lawsuit from a shareholder who said he had to file for bankruptcy himself after following Grubman's advice. It also faces a probe by the National Association of Securities Dealers into why he kept some of his buy recommendations as companies' financial problems mounted, as well as investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer into conflicts of interest in analysts' stock recommendations.

Additionally, Congressional investigators have been scrutinizing a $100,000 donation Grubman made to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee just days before news broke of the WorldCom Inc. accounting scandal.

Grubman was called to testify before the House Financial Services Committee about his ties to the industry and what he knew about accounting problems before they were revealed to the public. He denied any wrongdoing.

The memo announcing Grubman's resignation from Michael A. Carpenter, CEO of Citigroup's Global Corporate & Investment Bank, called Grubman "a hard working and dedicated professional" who has "long been a valued member of our research team."

"Jack and I agree that recent events have made it difficult for him, both personally and professionally, to stay in a job and industry that we know are important to him," Carpenter's memo said.

Carpenter said that while Grubman did not correctly forecast the collapse of the telecommunications sector, he agrees with Grubman's claim in his letter of resignation that, "he always wrote what he believed and conducted himself professionally and in accordance with legal and ethical standards."