Remember how last month a rogue trader cost banking giant Societe Generale a mind-boggling $7 billion in losses?
Well, a similar thing happened yesterday, though admittedly on a much smaller scale. This time, a rogue trader for MF Global, a futures firm based out of Bermuda, let loose at the Chicago Board of Trade, racking up losses to the tune of $141.5 million.
The trader was a man named Evan B. Dooley, who worked on commission from an office in Memphis. He apparently was able to make wild trades in his personal account by backing the action with money from the firm’s account. MF Global has assured investors that they’ve made changes so that this kind of thing won’t happen again.
The full Tribune story can be found here.
Don’t you think it’s time that every investment firm reviews their procedures to make sure a single person can’t devastate their finances like this ever again? How many more of these massive scams are we going to have to read about?