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This year marks a decade since Jerome Kerviel was taken into custody accused of perpetrating the biggest financial fraud case in history. As a trader at Societe Generale, Kerviel carried out unauthorised trades to a reported value of €49.9bn. Just five days after the bank released details of Kerviel’s illicit activity, the market had experienced losses of around €5bn. Kerviel was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay back the €5bn that he lost. The months that followed saw blame shift around: some thought it was the work of one greedy trader, others maintained that the company,...

he boss of Steve Perkins, the broker at the heart of a rogue trading scandal that rocked oil markets this week, issued a bullish report suggesting prices could go higher only hours after Mr Perkins made the unauthorised trades that caused prices to spike. The disclosure raises further questions about internal controls at PVM Oil Associates, the world’s largest oil brokerage. The London-based firm, which revealed on Thursday it had lost $10m (€7.1m, £6.1m) as a result of trades by Mr Perkins, one of its senior brokers, said the trading report was sent to clients at 08.44 in London on...

Merrill Lynch currency trader investigated over $400m loss By Adrian Cox and Peter Garnham in London and Greg,Farrell in New York Published: March 7 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 7 2009 02:00 A Merrill Lynch currency trader has been suspended after racking up more than $400m in undisclosed losses in recent months, raising further questions about the financial health of the investment bank bought by Bank of America last September. Merrill is poring over the books of Alexis Stenfors, a London currency trader, who was suspended after Norwegian and Swedish currency trades went wrong, according to people familiar with...

Excerpt - When the Federal Reserve surprised markets with a 0.75 percentage-point cut in the federal-funds target Tuesday morning, the thinking was that concerns about a U.S. recession had so fully enveloped the markets that just about anything could happen. Sure, the thinking went, the Fed was in danger of looking like it had responded to market action rather than an economic report, but if markets were reacting to economic reports, well, it’s all the same in this world these days. However. The revelation that Societe Generale is taking a $7 billion write-down due to the activities of one rogue...