An Epstein Valentine
Goldman Sachs General Counsel Kathy Ruemmler will eventually resign after her chummy relationship with the world's most notorious pedophile is exposed
This Week In Blunders - Feb. 8-14
“Today is Valentine's Day. Or, as men like to call it, extortion day.” - Jay Leno
Goldman Sachs is taking its sweet time realizing that it can’t have someone who once adored Jeffrey Epstein as its top lawyer.
Someone this tight with Epstein should not be chair of Goldman’s Firmwide Conduct Committee or co-vice chair of its Firmwide Reputational Risk Committee, either.
Kathy Ruemmler, 54, on Thursday announced she would resign, but not until June 30.
She has not accused of doing anything wrong at the prestigious firm, but the optics have been terrible since her name started emerging beside Epstein’s in 2023.
Worse, Goldman Sach’s top brass has doggedly stood behind her as financial publications hammered away, beginning with The Wall Street Journal.
Ruemmler has repeatedly characterized her work with Epstein as professional, but emails tell a different story: He showered her with gifts – including $10,000 in Bergdorf Goodman gift cards, a Herme’s bag and a $53,750 wire payment for a chartered jet ride.
She felt she could never return his kindness. And …
Almost anyone can now troll through millions of pages in the Epstein files using a handy, searchable database on the Justice Department’s website. I say “almost anyone” because it’s kind of like an adult entertainment site. You have to attest that you’re at least 18 years old.
Ruemmler’s name comes up in dozens of files. As a Valentine’s Day special, I’ve selected this 2015 exchange between Ruemmler and Epstein’s aid Lesley Groff:
To be clear, it doesn’t look like a romantic yearning, but it does look a lot deeper than the professional relationship Ruemmler claims.
Last week, I challenged readers to imagine all this talk was about Jeffrey Dahmer instead of Jeffrey Epstein. What would it sound like to hear someone say they adore a vicious serial killer instead of just a notorious sex-trafficking pedophile?
Read More:
Networking With A Pedophile (Business Blunders)
Meditations With A Sex Offender (Business Blunders)
Winter Is Coming For Summers (Business Blunders)
Was Maxwell Smart? (Business Blunders)
I’ve also said anyone who has maintained a relationship with Epstein after his first arrest in 2008 has some explaining to do.
In the business world in which I write, this has included celebrity guru Deepak Chopra, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and last week, the chairman of one of the nation’s most powerful law firms, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.
Brad Karp resigned over his friendly chats with Epstein, including a July 22, 2015 email, in which he thanks the big creep for hosting a “once in a lifetime” evening he would “never forget.” Epstein responded, “there are many many nights of unique talents. you will be invited often.”
Those optics were really bad.
Goldman Sachs must have felt it had a little more leeway. But the firm hasn’t been thinking clearly about its Epstein blunder or how Ruemmler’s past may embarrass it’s more than 46,000 employees.
How’d you like to sit in a sexual harassment training session or a boring compliance meeting knowing that the firm’s most senior female executive once adored Epstein?
She’s has said she regrets knowing him – yeah, now that the news is out and all the gift cards are all spent.
As the story comes to a close, Goldman can’t stop singing Ruemmler’s praises – perhaps because she hasn’t quite worn out the sheen from serving in both the Obama and Clinton administrations.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon issued this statement to media:
“Throughout her tenure, Kathy has been an extraordinary general counsel, and we are grateful for her contributions and sound advice on a wide range of consequential legal matters for the firm. As one of the most accomplished professionals in her field, Kathy has also been a mentor and friend to many of our people, and she will be missed. I accepted her resignation, and I respect her decision.”
Anyone else can see the problem here. Why not just let her go and shut up already?
The CEO love trap
“You can’t buy love, but you can pay heavily for it.” – Henny Youngman
The rules at most companies are pretty clear. You can’t have undisclosed relationships with someone who works under you.
It’s amazing how many CEOs think they are above this rule. And it’s amazing how much they lose when their boards decide to do something about it.
Business Blunders keeps a list of top executives who’ve lost their jobs to love, lust or naughty behavior on the job.
If you know a CEO who has a secret Valentine in the office, send them a link. It could save them millions.
Read More: Lost In Love (Business Blunders)
A lonely nation butchered like pigs
An elderly man who lost more than $8 million in two pig butchering scams is suing HSBC’s U.S. banking arm for not stopping the transactions.
Pig butchering is a form of romance fraud where victims are courted over time and convinced to wire increasingly large amounts of money. The name comes from “shā zhū pán,” Chinese for fattening a pig before the slaughter. AARP, of course, prefers to call it “financial grooming.”
Related Reading:
Hello, I Love You (Business Blunders)
Hey Pig, The Feds Found Your Crypto (Business Blunders)
Piggy Banker (Business Blunders)
Dow Lee, a retired anesthesiologist who is in his 80s, and his sons who are acting on his behalf, claim the bank ignored obvious warning signs of a fraud that often targets the elderly. Online fraudsters convinced Lee to move large sums into accounts in the U.S., Singapore and Hong Kong – and the suspicious transfers kept clearing.
Federal agencies have warned that these scams are exploding in scale, costing victims an estimated $10 billion a year.
Financial institutions are on notice, which raises the question: When does a customer’s “right to transact” become a bank’s duty to intervene?
Sometimes they catch the heartless thugs who perpetrate these crimes. Most times they don’t.
Last week, Daren Li, 42, received a 20 year prison sentence for helping run a $73 million global crypto scam from overseas call centers that preyed on online relationships and fake investment platforms.
Li, who has dual citizenship in China and St. Kitts and Nevis, is among eight co-conspirators who have pleaded guilty so far. The trouble is, he was sentenced in absentia.
He’d already cut off his ankle bracelet and run.
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Do this guy next: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce82xgd2g3yo