Some of Goldman Sachs Group's largest shareholders have asked the company to cut the size of its bonus pool and pass along more of its profits to investors, according to the Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources.

The large bonus pool - $17 billion – has been controversial, as the Wall Street firm and wealth manager has received $10 billion in taxpayer’s money under the US government bailout of financial companies. Goldman Sachs has, however, repaid the bulk of the funds to the government.

The shareholders are also concerned about a change in the company's financial statements that increased the firm's total headcount by adding temporary employees and consultants, the newspaper said.

Goldman staff are on track to earn as much as $717,000 per person in 2009, the report said.

The firm was not immediately reachable for comment at the time of publication.