It turns out the tweets weren't coming from inside Goldman Sachs' elevator. They were coming from Texas.
The man behind the Goldman Sachs Elevator Twitter persona @GSElevator was unmasked Tuesday by the New York Times, which fingered 34-year old former bond executive John Lefevre as the account's creator.
"Frankly, I'm surprised it has taken this long," Lefevre told the Times from his home in Texas. "I knew this day would come."
Lefevre's @GSElevator account offers a delightful mix of insider Wall Street gossip, deal talk, X-rated hijinks and big bank bashing that attracted plenty of attention from finance professionals -- and professional finance haters.
The account, which is followed by more than 650,000 people, purported to serve up conversations heard inside the bank's elevators. A small sample:
Suit #1: "Was that an earthquake?"
Suit #2: "No, I just dropped my wallet."
It's now clear that, like so many things on the Internet, it would have been misguided to construe Lefrevre's tweets as genuine. Instead, he was just having a little fun at the expense of his former industry.
"I do not have an agenda to paint the people or this culture one way or the other," Lefevre told the Times.
"I went into investment banking and I saw a group of people that aren't as impressive as I thought they were — or as impressive as they thought they were," he said.
Related story: Making 6 figures on Wall Street, but life stinks
A spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs (GS) told CNNMoney that the bank would be making some changes now that Lefevre had been exposed.
"We are pleased to report that the official ban on talking in elevators will be lifted effective immediately," she said. The spokeswoman declined to comment when asked if the bank was considering taking legal action.
Related story: The man behind @GSElevator
Lefevre told the Times that he worked at Citigroup for seven years before almost taking a job at Goldman's Hong Kong office in 2010. The offer fell through due to a non-compete agreement with Citigroup (C).
@GSElevator has, over time, become much less racy -- probably in an effort to attract the interest of publishers. Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, is now scheduled to publish a book based on the Twitter account.
"At the advice of my agent, I've stopped tweeting things that could be construed as slightly misogynistic or racist," @GSElevator told CNNMoney last year.
