Surprise: Goldman Sachs to pay out $5 billion more in bonuses for first three months of 2010

As if to put the icing on the cake, the investment bank Goldman Sachs is set to shell out another $5 billion in bonuses to employees.

What's more, the bonuses are expected to cover the employees' work for just the first three months of the year, according to the UK Sunday Times.

According to the report, bankers will receive remuneration of about $170,000 per person for the firm's 32,500 employees. Some traders are set to receive millions.

Earlier this year, Goldman's "junior" bankers were told they'd begin receiving salaries that were double their previous takes.

"It's made me rethink everything," a Goldman Sachs employee, "sipping champagne," told the site. "I like the new structure even better. My monthly take home just went way up."

In 2009, Goldman set aside a total of $16.7 billion for employee bonuses, which amounted to about $700,000 per employee. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein received $9 million in restricted stock.

News of the new bonuses comes as the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that its charging Goldman with civil fraud over a pre-packaged mortgage instrument they say was designed to fail.

Goldman Sachs created the derivative -- called Abacus 2007-AC1 -- in response to a request from a hedge fund manager who predicted that the housing market would collapse and wanted to bet against it. The trader, John Paulson, later earned $3.7 billion for his wager. Goldman's practices cost investors $1 billion, according to the filing.

According to the New York Times, which first revealed details of the Abacus case, the instrument was among 25 Goldman created so that clients could bet against the housing market.

The Times also revealed Monday that top Goldman executives were responsible for overseeing the unit in question, including a role by Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein.