BS: What about that French fraud, eh?

Subject: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 09:21 AM

Guy manages to steal 50 billion, that's billion, euros, without bankrupting the bank - and it's the bank of all my French friends! Yikes! What does s/he think s/he's going to DO with all that? Buy health insurance for Americans for 1 year? Buy Majorca? Sell most of it back to tell people how s/he did it?

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Peace
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 10:30 AM

I would imagine the guy/gal will take a long vacation to a country with which France has no extradition treaty.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 10:50 AM

Must not have made the news over here. There's a report of a guy who lost $7 billion (US) of his bank's money, but nothing about anyone getting anything like that.

Got a source?

John

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Peace
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 10:54 AM

"A rogue trader gambled up to £60 billion in the world's biggest banking fraud disaster.

The dealer, named in reports as trader Jerome Kerviel, lost an astonishing £3.6 billion for French bank Société Générale and is today being blamed for this week's global stock market crisis.

The bank says it does not know where the trader is and admitted he still has his passport."


Story here. But it ain't 50 billion.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 10:56 AM

Well, he stole 4.5 billion, but made 50 billion on it. They didn't have his name, before...

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Peace
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 11:00 AM

Then he ain't the dud as a trader that they say.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Donuel
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 12:11 PM

As the dust settles they are saying it is now closer to 8 Billion US dollars.

Greed be it in France or Wall Street, they just can't stop.
ITs worse than cigarettes.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 12:15 PM

I read about it this morning, but there were few details on how he managed to do this and where (if anywhere) the cash (does anyone actually handle cash any more?) ended up. It said the bank was going to recapitalize or something along those lines--made me think they might print their own money. :-/

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Peace
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 12:21 PM

They could recapitalize by borrowing from that guy . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Peace
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 12:22 PM

at a below prime interest rate . . . .

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 12:47 PM

And if he turns out to be an Arab terrorist, what then?

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Peace
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 12:52 PM

Then the bank will be invaded by the USA and the UK.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Schantieman
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 02:51 PM

If he made a mistake, would that be a fraudian slip?

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 03:08 PM

The amount was about 7.1 billion U. S. The bank, Societe General, is the second-largest in France, and will survive, red-faced.

The guy gambled on the market with it, and lost it, so he got no benefit.

Good coverage on the BBC news and business report.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 03:52 PM

Apparently the Americans are accusing the French bank of lying, and hiding their other losses and pretending it was fraud? Anybody hear that?

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 04:08 PM

No. But maybe Robespierre is back in office.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 04:16 PM

Now I see where Reuters is running a piece that speculates frantic selling by the French Bank to stem their losses led to the world wide market panic that drove share prices so low.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Linda Kelly
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 04:23 PM

Merde!

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Peace
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 04:26 PM

No shit!

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 04:29 PM

LOL!

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 04:51 PM

He and his supervisors are all "leaving" their positions at the bank, is what I read.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Peace
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 05:06 PM

They walkin' or takin' a plane?

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: folk1e
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 07:06 PM

He was "betting" on the futures market (which was his job to do). Unfortunately he lost, and rather than admitting it he covered up his mistake and invested (bet) more to try and recoup his losses! This cycle continued until the "brown and smelly" hit the fan.
Both he and his manager(s) have "left the bank"

What do we expect when we give access to vast amounts of capital to youngsters?
If he had "won" we would never have discovered it!
I wonder how often this has occured!

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 08:06 PM

If this French fraud had occured in 2003, would Congress have passed a resolution renaming it "Freedom fraud"?

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Jan 08 - 11:33 PM

His salary was a little over $100,000 Euros (About $145,000 U. S.); age 31.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 08:36 AM

This is all very sad.

Some of us here at Mudcat would have lost much less!

Of course, then there wouldn't be any cents in doing that!

Now this would never have happened in the Czech Republic. There the financial institutions have rigorous and vigorous Czechs and balances.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Donuel
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 08:55 AM

I see that a bank lost this money but WHO MADE THIS MONEY?

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: gnomad
Date: 25 Jan 08 - 01:53 PM

The gain was to those who accepted his ill-considered bets. Had he won then they would have lost.

The winners will almost all be other financial institutions, and many contributors here will have some stake in one or more of them, so unless you were hit by the panic caused by the announcement, or hold a direct or indirect investment in Soc Gen there is a fair chance that you have gained infinitesimally from these events. It is part of how international finance works. While losses (or gains) of this magnitude by a single (relatively) lowly individual are rare to the point of being unheard of, the constant flow to and fro is normal.

Whether or not this is a good thing is a different question, as is how an individual was able to escape the supervision which should have kept his trades in the area where we almost all choose to ignore what the institutions are doing in our names.

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Riginslinger
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 10:48 AM

I wonder what will become of him?

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Jan 08 - 11:31 AM

Man, this was a better story when he HAD the 71 billion dollars...

Subject: RE: BS: What about that French fraud, eh?
From: folk1e
Date: 27 Jan 08 - 10:38 AM

What with the Script writers Strike maybe we should get a script together for a big Hollywood Blockbuster!
I am sure the original cost to Soc Gen could be incorporated in the usual budget!