Some true stories are so crazy they sound unbelievable; this is one of them.

His contribution to collapsing an entire bank is insane, it really shows how different life was back then for people in finance; this wasn’t a case of one man crashing a bank (Barings Bank), it was a case of poor controls and bonus hunting allowing it to happen.

Technology was very different back then, which made it a bit easier to hide things, unfortunately, despite advances in technology, we still have had incidents of controls failing since then, here’s some examples:

• In 1995 – 1998, The bank, Banco Noroeste was defrauded of $242m, a man who impersonated the CEO of Bank of Nigeria, convinced the unfortunate victims to fund an airport that did not exist.

• In 1996, the Sumitomo Corporation, lost $2.6bn due to a rogue trader, who was sentenced to 8 years.

• In 2008, Societe Generale had a similar issue, with a staff member costing the company £3.7bn, he was sentenced but won an appeal.

• In 2012, a UBS trader in the UK, lost the company £1.4bn, the staff member was sentenced to jail and deported from the country.

Thoughts

If you’ve not seen this movie and you’re interested or work in finance, it’s a must watch. The movie paints a fair picture of the trader, you can understand how he got into this mess and can almost sense a feeling of relief once it all comes crashing down.

Pressure pushes people to find creative ways of making income, we are pushed from very early to succeed, the best students of success are praised by: educational establishments, press, peers, partners, family, friends and maybe even royalty.

The rest, get nice speeches at their funeral, there is nothing wrong with either path but I do understand people who want more from life.

To be clear, I don’t have adulation for the rich ruthless types, but I do see a common denominator, they always seem to rise to the top, whilst the empathetic types, hit a stagnation point.

“The things we do, just to make it through, but nobody want to lose, nobody want to fail, nobody want to die, we’re just tryna live our life” – Meek Mill Heaven and Hell

@Brainthrough

Links:

Kweku Adoboli jailed for fraud over £1.4bn UBS loss – BBC News

Société Générale uncovers £3.7bn fraud by rogue trader | Credit crunch | The Guardian

French rogue trader Jérôme Kerviel freed | Jérôme Kerviel | The Guardian

Meet Emmanuel Nwude: The Man Who Sold a Fake Airport to an International Bank In One of the Biggest Frauds in History – NewsWireNGR

$242m airport scam: I’m unaware of source of funds, Nwude tells court | The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News — Nigeria — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News