The year 2009 was one that some Goldman Sachs executives would like to forget. Yet the firm is reliving some of its biggest controversies in its longest-ever annual letter to shareholders.

The eight-page note, released Wednesday, presents Goldman's point of view directly to shareholders ahead of the firm's May 7 annual meeting. For example, criticised for putting the bank's own interests ahead of customers, Goldman chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein and president Gary Cohn say in the letter that clients are at the top of the pecking order.