Jacob Lew: Another Brick in the Wall Street on the Potomac (William K. Black)

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18. I have no doubt that the guy is a protege of Robert Rubin

I just doubt that Citi actually gave him financial decision making responsibilities or that he actually ran the organizations that he might have nominally been in charge of.

More likely, Rubin arranged for him to get a job at Citi, and Citi thought it would be a good idea to develop a relationship with a up and coming Washington bureaucrat who might be returning to DC. So they parked him in a couple of places in the organization, gave him a few million, etc. An MD in asset management might work on building relationships with rich politicians, rich donors, etc. but not actually do any investment decision-making for the clients.

His time at Citi doesn't mean that he knows squat about finance, investment, banking, or managing an organization.

Nor does it mean that he was ever in a position to make decisions that would increase or decrease the magnitude of the Citi debacle.