To: Citi Employees
From: Vikram Pandit and Sir Win Bischoff
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2009 5:11 PM
Re: Bob Rubin Retirement
It is with considerable sadness that we are letting you know that Bob
Rubin has decided to retire from Citi. This was not a decision Bob came
to lightly, but as he enters his 70s and with all that is now in place
at Citi, he believed the time has come for him to deepen his involvement
in outside activities and organizations to which he has been strongly
committed.
Since Bob joined Citi nearly 10 years ago, he has made invaluable
contributions to the company. From the beginning, Bob has been
instrumental in working with clients around the globe and forging strong
relationships for our businesses. He has also been a trusted advisor to
senior management and the Board, and we are pleased to say Bob has
agreed to continue to be available as a sounding board and resource for
us and the company.
Please join us in wishing him well and thanking him for his years of
service and leadership.
Attached is Bob’s letter for you to read.
does he still get to use the company as his personal ATM?
just curious
TRB
“…My great regret is that I and so
many of us who have been involved in this industry for so long did not recognize the serious possibility ofthe extreme circumstances that the financial system faces today.”
Bob’s drunk
Has anyone checked to see if his email still works?
What about BOB?
Rough Weekend at Bernies
“Invaluable contributions”
Actually, I believe a value has been put on them.
the allan houston of banking
The next letter anyone gets from Bob is going to be addressed from the nursing home.
@1
He is strongly comitted to strengthening his strong use of the company coffers as an ATM, but no funds will go to the purchase of a thesaurus.
I also love the cut-and-paste by Vikram.
Vikram, you dirty Chai Wallah when are you going to leave? Please leave now, this isn’t the Alamo!
@7 – LOL
Vikram -> Wall Street’s Slumdog millionaire.
@12 – not really, he’s much worse.
The original Slum dog was smart and had real world experience.
@13 ok true…he can be the crap covered little kid
people bitch about fuld and cayne, but no one made more for doing less than this jackass
Nice one Bob. Short of setting the place on fire and eating employees’ children I’m not sure if there was much left for you to do. I think there may be some coins left in the couches in the reception area.
Here’s an idea Bob (perhaps one last trick and it might only take 18 months) : Why don’t you go start a hedge fund…sell it to Vikram for $800 MM…become CEO…close down the fund…and then forego your bonus for the following year as a sign that you are willing to share the pain with your employees
Summary, me and my pals have fucked up this industry in particular and the country in general and we’re getting out en masse while the gettin’s good. See yas!
@3 Bob cannot use e-mail.
dude, if you think “Banamex” was a major acquisition, then you’re smoking some SERIOUSLY awesome bud and I want some.
i thought banamex lost out to vhs a long time ago? loser.
How do I short Kofi Annan’s Africa Progress Panel? Ticker symbol KAPP?
I was going to suggest firing Rubin into the sun but then realized he would advise it to go out and all human life would seek to exist.
I knew Bob Rubin from his days at GS and unbeknownst to most of you, he is a class act. Being in an advisory role means they ask him to client meetings, not whether they should purchase another subprime mortgage broker or invent another type of CDO. He was never a mortgage guy so I don’t imagine they consulted with him.
invaluable = worthless
Great gig, Bob. It only took 10 years for the board to realize that you were as useful as a dildo in a knife fight.
@24 – I’m sure he is a class act but you lose any credibility when you say that his role had nothing to do with “whether they should purchase another subprime mortgage broker”. Bob’s goodbye email says that “From the beginning, my role, by being advisory, allowed me to act as a sounding board and advisor for the CEOs, senior management, and others on managerial, personnel, strategic and structural issues and on major acquisitions…”. You can’t square his statement with yours. You do deserve credit for being a loyal chauffeur but you should avoid going on TV to defend him because nothing good can come of it. Good luck in finding another executive to drive.
- Fixed Income
Madoff has nothing on this clown. Whereas Bernie stole from a select tribe, good ol’ Bob has been stealing millions from shareholders and coworkers for a decade. Fucked up part is I am sure Obama and Hil have a little cove somewhere for him to parachute into. And he will get a hero’s welcome.
@24 that is like telling (football) Jet fans that Brett Favre was so great during those playoff runs in Green Bay. Brett and Bob stole about $15mm from their employers in 2008.
When is Vikky and his loudmouth sidekick Havens going to follow this guy out the door? Great management team, my ass: Wachovia? $6 shareprice? government ownership? Sir Win still gainfully employed? All under Pandit’s short keep. How this guy is running a major U.S. bank instead of teaching Statistics 101 at a junior college in New Jersey is beyond the greatest fiction ever composed.
Rubin, if you were the class act that so many portray you as why don’t you take a stroll on any of the 390 Trading Floors and bid farewell personally to about a thousand folks who most likely would “drop trou” and piss on you.
So long you piece of shit, do not let the door hit you on the ass on the way out.
I heard his job has actually been outsourced to Polaris.
Any receipients to Rubins future charitable works should run far away from him. This incompetent fool is the kiss of death.
@26 has it exactly right. Alpa Chino is a more classy act. this guy Rubin has been value-poison for years, including the nepotism bit. Remember who was the spokesman for those lovely Clinton folks?
two down, one to go. Larry Summers next.
http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19990215,00.html
@17 good for you keeping the old lane story alive (and I’m being sincere). I don’t work at citi, never have and I hope never will, but wtF am I missing. Citi buys a months old hedge fund with no track record, for cash, shuts it down a year later and makes the seller CEO of the entire f’ing company??? If the people who signed off on that deal haven’t been fired already, then citi is more broken than even its worst critics imagine. I really can’t imagine.
No matter what happened at Citi, Rubin was still one of the best Treasury secretaries in history, and nothing can take that away. I wish him good luck.
Viktoria kissed Barbara on the cheek, then departed to her drawing room. Whereupon she drafted the first couple of paragraphs (which she then emailed to Barbara). Barbara went agro, got rid of her iphone and and went old school with cut and paste instead. She cutted and pasted from Viktoria’s email, and laughed the next day when she realized how obvious it was to all that her own thoughts started with the word When.
For all the things left undone according to the media, good riddance. I don’t know how you get a multi-million dollar a year job with govt and Citi and do nothing constructive and now, walk away pockets full. Here is the place for a BULLSHIT.
The best part about Citi is that now there is a massive effort to “cut costs” across the board. Cut jobs (there are alot to cut, the hierarchy is about as flat as the the Himalayas), shed “non-core” businesses, etc.
What Pandit (and his minions) fail to realize, apparently, is that unless the effort is intended to be more window dressing, they’re not addressing the fundamental issues which have – and continue to cause – Citi to suck ass.
Namely, finally committing to single, modular systems firm-wide (instead of several, often redundant systems operating simultaneously), flattening the management structure, and adopting an operating philosophy that doesn’t involve shooting itself in the foot.
@17 & @30 This is the real story. Where’s Barney Frank. Vikram needs to give the $ back before picking the pockets of those of us who work hard in this country and pay taxes.
Ok, I read a piece of the article, anyone who mentions age of any person regardless should not be deemed as anyone responsible for anything period, forget CITI….thank god I don’t work for this firm, god bless all of you dealing with this POS!!!!
What a stupid F—!! This guy used his “Wall Street Credentials” to get a job lining up Bill Clinton’s interns, shooting Hillary’s lover, Vince Foster and then used that “Resume Building experience” to get a free pass position at Citi.
Then back on Wall Street, the only guy that didn’t sleep while Citi burned was the guy bring the money from the bank’s vault to one of Bobby Rubin’s Mansions.
This guy should share a cell with Madoff, they both stole alot of money from alot of people.
If you think I am angry, imagine how angry I would be if I was long “C” or lost my Citi job in one of the many restructurings that the aging Bobby oversaw but didn’t have responsibility for?
Bob – may your retirment be short and your jail term long!!!
the problem is not Bob, is Vikram Bandit who is an incompetent idiot, he was fired at MS, run down a hedge fund and now has destroyed Citi…he should go to India to run Satyam Computer Services
@21 well played Trebeck
Think the old Solly crowd is rollin’ over in their cabanas or screamin’ bloody murder about how a GS alum screwed the pooch on this one…now that GS has been globally deified in all quarters, they must be proud to have passed the crap to the unsuspecting retards at C (w/, of course, an intermediate stop at Treasury to embellish the bona fides). Maybe C can reclaim part of his comp as a charitable deduction.
Bob should ditch the concerned citizen BS…get an effing job …perhaps actually visit one of those distressed “urban & rural” communities. Maybe move into a double-wide or better yet, help the poor bastards that have C sub-prime mtgs figure out how to pay them…but when you move in his circles, it’s better to “advise” than to actually contribute…what an ASSHOLE.
“Invaluable contribution…”
OED definition of ‘invaluable’ follows:
invaluable (In”v&lju:@b(@)l), a. (n.) [in-3.]
1. That cannot be valued; above and beyond valuation; of
2. Without value, valueless.
Your call…
34 – yes, yes, and yes again (from experience). Bravo.
Robert Rubin’s do do list:
- call Bill Clinton to get a high paying do nothing job again
- call Monica Lewinsky for a dinner date
- call Lloyd Blankenfein and beg for a job
- new socks, the ones with the gold toe and heel
- vacation plans on Richard Branson’s island
Rubin might belong in the dust bin of financial history, but why isn’t anyone picking on Sandy Weill? I was working for Solly back in ’97 when Sandy bought Solly. His first moves were to cut Solly pay & benefits and award himself $200M+ in stock and options. Then Sandy goes and gives that money to Carnegie Hall and people think he’s generous.
Bernie might have run a ponzi scheme, but Sandy ran a shell game of buying, selling and spinning off companies without increasing shareholder value.