Word: leeson
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Haven't we all heard the Nick Leeson story one time too many? Let's see, there was the unauthorized biography, then the ghost-written how-I-did-it and even a celluloid treatment, with Ewan McGregor playing the Rogue Trader. Apparently some of the folks at Allied Irish, Ireland's biggest bank, needed another telling of the tale to drive home the message that inadequately supervised traders can threaten even the most venerable institutions. So last week we got the real-life reenactment: Allied Irish alleged that John Rusnak, 37, a currency trader at Allfirst, its U.S. unit...
...creepy: a preppy trader at a remote outpost of a mid-sized European bank loses hundreds of millions by gambling on the financial markets while his superiors remain clueless for months. When he can no longer hide the losses, the trader disappears. At this point the stories diverge. Unlike Leeson, who fled from his Singapore base to Borneo and then to Frankfurt, Rusnak never left town and, his lawyers insist, was not a fugitive. The other difference: seven years ago, Leeson's losses of $1.3 billion from dodgy derivatives deals were large enough to bankrupt his employer, Barings Bank...
Photo Essay: On assignment for TIME.com, photographer David Leeson visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial
Photo Essay: On assignment for TIME.com, photographer David Leeson visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial
...amazing aspects of Lebed's story, or that of any Net fraudster, is that people act on the hype they see online. Large banks like Chase Manhattan pay millions of dollars a year in premiums to insure against a rogue trader like Leeson. Your best protection against a rogue Internet hypster is just not to listen. Most pump-and-dump schemes involve micro-cap stocks. That's your first tip-off. Often they hype them as likely to double or better in weeks. If you have questions, the SEC has a brochure, "Pump&Dump.con," with tips for avoiding scams...