Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan was direct about allegations that Goldman Sachs had sold customers financial products it knew were flawed. But he didn't get a direct answer.
Levin: "Do you think they know that you think something is a piece of crap when you sell it to them and then bet against it? Do you think they know that?"
Blankfein: "I don't know who 'they' is."
To Blankfein's credit, he didn't claim ignorance of the inner workings of his company. But his answers were cryptic. He went so far as to claim that Goldman's clients wouldn't care if they were sold products that the firm then shorted without their knowledge.
"They probably - the institutional clients that we have - wouldn't care what our views are," said Blankfein. "They shouldn't care."
Months later, Levin followed up with a scathing 600-page report that accused Goldman of misleading its clients and Congress.
Blankfein is still running Goldman Sachs.
