A new issue of the Typo is in the works. Should hit your emailbox mid-week. This one will have some good editorial content to make up for the embarrassing amount of “sales” related articles that have graced the Typo since Jan. 1. So, stick with us.

But, this one is just too good to leave lay. Or, should that be lie? That’s why I called the publication the Typo. Here’s where I was headed.

One guy. A mid-level employee, has brought France’s second largest bank to its knees with $7 billion in trading losses. Holy Cow, Batman!

Let’s step back and look at this. One guy. $7.2 billion (sorry, this is the correct number; I was only off by $200 million). A bank. Not just any bank. The second largest bank in France. A bank - suppose to be a safe place to put your money. For more than a year, Senor Kerviel (sorry, can’t spell the french equivalent), evaded multiple layers of computer controls and audits. Oh, and this little fact. He didn’t take any of the money. The whole thing was to cover up his bad trades early in the game. Cover one bad trade with a bad trade. Cover those with more bad trades. Is this the way it worked? Las Vegas odds would have been better, right? Probably couldn’t beat the travel controls the bank has in place.

Here is the money quote from the head of the bank (pun intended): “Societe Generale has been the victim of a serious internal fraud committed by an imprudent employee.” Is that the understatement of the year. Ok, and really whose fault is this? Stay tuned. This should develop into an interesting and unbelievable story. Want to read more, link over to the NY Times article.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 1:49 pm and is filed under Interesting Stuff, Left Field, Soap Box. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.