Person two: "How else would he get a job here?" Person three: "He doesn't shut up about Harvard." Person one: (laughs) "Or 'models'." Alex Turnbull, the son of the Prime Minister, had started his tempestuous relationship with social media. Turnbull does not seem to be sort of person to let a slight go unanswered. He set about the task of tracking down the man behind the popular Twitter account. Within 18 months, he outed the author as former investment banker John Lefevre. How Turnbull did it remains a mystery but he was so dogged he beat the New York Times, which had been investigating the account's true identity.

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull with Alex Turnbull. Credit:AAP "He’s a good, sharp guy - My jabs were meant to be funny. In hindsight, a bit over the line," Lefevre told Fairfax Media in 2014. His newfound respect for Turnbull may have something to do with threats of legal action from the young banker. Turnbull's aggressive pursuit of Lefevre suggests that he has inherited his father’s famous temperament and determination. But it is his judgment that has been called into question of late over his claim he was squeezed out of Goldman for raising concerns about a controversial Malaysian deal. Turnbull Jr hit the headlines last week when he told The Australian he blew the whistle on Goldman's lucrative dealings with Malaysia's controversial sovereign wealth fund, 1MDB. The Wall St firm picked up an astonishing $US590 million in fees in 2012 and 2013 for helping the sovereign fund raise $US6.5 billion worth of debt.

Loading Most of this money was allegedly funnelled overseas in a manner that has now attracted charges from the US Department of Justice. “Whistleblowing is a shit business,” Turnbull was quoted as saying last week in an article that reverberated around south-east Asia in the lead up to one of the most important events his father has hosted as Prime Minister: The South East Asian leaders summit. The matter is particular sensitive given one of the key figures allegedly enriched by the looting of the fund is Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who arrives in Australia this week. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video

It's not the first time Turnbull has made news at an inopportune time for his father. In 2016, he was outed as the author (using a pseudonym) of a scathing Facebook post attacking the Singaporean government’s handling of the smoke haze crisis. Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was in Australia talking with Malcolm Turnbull when that story broke. Turnbull's latest allegation has its origins in an obscure Malaysian blog Realpolitikasia, which last year speculated without any supporting evidence that Malcolm Turnbull was not investigating Australian links to the 1MDB scandal due to the fact that Alex was working for Goldman at the time. According to subsequent posts on Realpolitikasia, Alex Turnbull got in touch with the blogger, Ganesh Sahathevan, via a LinkedIn email on Friday, March 2. Turnbull, who left Goldman in July 2014, denied he benefited from 1MDB deals and asked Sahathevan to take the post down. It is true that Turnbull worked in Goldman's Special Situations Group, an in-house hedge fund that had nothing to do with 1MDB.

Media circus But he then went further, stating that he had called out the “insane pricing” and “bizarre structure” of the bond raising for 1MDB conducted by Goldman and “got yelled at by compliance for casting doubt on the integrity” of the bankers conducting the bond raising. “As a result I was 'b tracked' and resigned,” he said. Turnbull then threatened legal action in another email, adding: “I am not going to do this in public to drive traffic to your site and cause a media circus.” Sahathevan was clearly not too worried. He duly posted the correspondence on his blog.

Turnbull's claims then surfaced days later in the article in The Australian, which included fresh comments from the 35-year-old. The result was the media circus he had hoped to avoid in the first place. Turnbull told Fairfax Media last week that he was "misquoted" and has since gone to ground. He declined to comment for this article when repeatedly approached on Wednesday. Goldman has denied any suggestion Turnbull was sidelined for raising governance concerns. Credit:AP Goldman has hotly denied any suggestion Turnbull was sidelined for raising governance concerns. "Mr Turnbull had no involvement in the 1MDB transactions. Not surprisingly, we haven’t found any electronic communications of Mr Turnbull identifying any improper conduct with respect to these transactions or any action taken against him as a result," Goldman said in a prepared statement this week.

But things got worse for Turnbull this week when it emerged he had sent Goldman a 2000-word resignation email that did not include any mention of 1MDB. Instead, he complained at length about compliance rules that prevented him trading media stocks because of his father who was Australia’s communications minister at that time. “This is an unfair form of discrimination,” Turnbull complained in the email. “I now can’t invest in technology, media, telecoms or anything of the purview of my dad’s ministry. “Ruling out all of technology is very crippling. If you want to know how I felt about my career at GS when this was explained to me here is a nice clip from Aliens,” he said citing the cult sci/fi horror movie. Tit-for-tat world According to the email, which has been seen by Fairfax Media, Turnbull asked to be moved to another division of the global investment bank. His request appeared to fall on deaf ears. Sources close to Goldman claim he was not a strong performer and that Turnbull's anger comes from being passed over for promotion.

Turnbull does appear to have had a special interest in the media, communications and tech sector. However, it is standard practice for investment banks to impose rules that limit potential conflicts of interest. Turnbull also complained about Goldman’s restrictive social media. According to the resignation email, they should have embraced his desire to exchange ideas and research with fellow traders and investment bankers outside of Goldman Sachs’ Chinese walls. This is a content business, complained Alex, you need ideas “in order to make money". “It is a tit-for-tat world. You can’t skulk on chats hoovering up other people’s material and work for extended periods of time without getting kicked out if you do not contribute to the conversation.” It might provide some solace for Alex that his dad's career at Goldman was not all smooth sailing either.

Malcolm Turnbull was Goldman's Australian boss and adviser to FAI Insurance when it was taken over by HIH Insurance in 1998. HIH imploded two years later and Turnbull was dogged by claims FAI was worthless when HIH acquired it. A royal commission into the collapse cleared Turnbull and Goldman of any wrongdoing. It is not known what impact this is having on Alex Turnbull's new business in Singapore, a hedge fund called Keshik. But the only thing he would say to Fairfax Media on Wednesday was that - unlike the princelings in Asia with strong political connections - he was not relying on family money.