Business is tough at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., but the past is paying off: More than 30 executives, including Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein, recently cashed in stock options awarded in the afterglow of the company’s initial public offering in 1999.

According to a securities filing, the executives, all Goldman partners, pocketed a total of $21.8 million by exercising options and selling the underlying shares in the three days after the firm reported third-quarter results in mid-October.

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Read Liz Rappaport’s full Wall Street Journal article here