Facing a congressional committee on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler defended her extensive correspondence with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, explaining that the bank's rigorous risk-assessment frameworks are entirely unequipped to handle a billionaire who just says things that aren't true.
WASHINGTON — Facing a congressional committee on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs general counsel Kathryn Ruemmler defended her extensive correspondence with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, explaining that the bank's rigorous risk-assessment frameworks are completely powerless against a wealthy client who simply lies.
Ruemmler, the former White House counsel and current top lawyer at one of Wall Street's most powerful institutions, told lawmakers that while she exchanged dozens of breezy emails with the late financier, she was ultimately the victim of his deception. She noted that her elite legal training and the firm's multibillion-dollar compliance apparatus were designed to spot complex regulatory exposure, not to question the basic honesty of a man who hosted networking dinners at his private townhouse.
Our diligence protocols are built to catch subtle accounting discrepancies and misstated quarterly earnings, not to evaluate the moral character of a man offering us management fees.
Addressing the committee's questions regarding the warm tone of her messages, Ruemmler clarified that the banter was merely the industry-standard sycophancy deployed for any individual controlling a large asset pool. Lawmakers presented emails in which Ruemmler joked about travel and scheduling, which she characterized under oath as a routine, mandatory deployment of the firm's high-net-worth chuckle.
Following the testimony, Goldman Sachs shares remained flat, and the bank issued a revised internal guidance memo to its private wealth division. The updated policy formally reminds managing directors to ask prospective clients at least once if they are operating an international criminal enterprise, and to politely take their word for it if they say no.