Financial disasters roll of honour
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The Devil’s Advocate™
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We all know those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it. But what of those who do remember history? Well, they are apparently condemned to repeat it, too.
See also
| Scandal | Date | Where | Loss | Reason | Firings | Jail-Time? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit Suisse | Switzerland | Gradual decline into entropy with a 92% decline in share price since 2015 | Hubris, incompetent management, stupidity, spying, uselessness | Billions and billions over a series of avoidable cockups | Like the old man in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, “I’m not dead. I think I’m going for a walk. I feel happy.” Market (to SNB): “Isn’t there anything you can do?” | |
| Silicon Valley Bank memeplex | 2023 | US | $80bn or more | Dopey bank management, regulator asleep at switch, Peter Thiel panicking | Bank insolvent. Bondholders and shareholders wiped out. Other banks levied. Triggered other moral panics such as First National, Signature bank and others (poor old lucky Credit Suisse) | None yet. Lots of arguments about the presence or absence of moral hazard. Moral panic more like. |
| Frank | 2023 | US | $175m | Fraud, unfeasible gullibility | Javice got fired. Surely more to come | Not yet clear |
| FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried | 2022 | US | $32bn (so far) | Hubris, stupidity, fraud | Fired: Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison, SBF Fired. Bankruptcies: Alameda, Genesis, Blockfi. Suspensions of trading: Gemini Reported Losses: Crypto.com, Tiger Global Management, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, SoftBank Group, BlackRock, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Temasek, and Sequoia Capital reported losses of $1bn |
Charged with wire fraud conspiracy to commit securities fraud, money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., violation of campaign finance laws. |
| Barclays MTN Programme Limit | 2022 | US | £1.3bn | Internal Operations | None reported but you have to fear for those poor folk in ops. I beg your pardon? What poor folk in ops? Oh, Right. | No |
| LME Nickel short squeeze | 2022 | London | “Billions” | LME | None reported ... yet | No |
| Evergrande | 2021 | China | $300bn | Who knows? | No | |
| Archegos | 2021 | US | $10bn+ | UMR Internal operations |
100+ across brokers plus several senior executives and one CEO | Eyes peeled, Mr Huang |
| Greensill | 2021 | UK | $4.6bn | |||
| Melvin Capital Management LP | 2021 | US | $7bn | Hubris detector failed | Everyone! The fund shut down shortlay after | Talk of regulators, outrageously, going after the outsider traders, but nothing as yet. |
| Citigroup v Brigade | 2021 | US | $500m | Outsourcing, Operations, IT | Not reported but wouldn’t fancy being head of the team in Bangalore | No |
| Nikola | 2020 | US | About 80% share drop | CEO misrep | Must have been plenty | CEO indicted on charges of securities fraud |
| Wirecard | 2020 | Germany | $4bn | CEO misrep | All of them | Three charged with fraud including CEO |
| WeWork | 2019 | US | $11bn over three years | CEO yogababble | Nothing to see here folks! Got a new venture to start up | No such luck. |
| Carillion | 2018 | UK | £7bn | Auditors | 3,000 jobs | No but litigation a-plenty |
| Patisserie Valerie | 2018 | UK | ||||
| Abraaj | 2017 | Saudi | ||||
| Fyre festival | 2017 | US | ||||
| 1MDB | 2016 | Asia | ||||
| Mossack Fonseca | 2016 | Panama | ||||
| Theranos | 2016 | US | ||||
| Wells Fargo accounts fraud | 2016 | US | ||||
| Volkswagen emissions | 2015 | Germany and US | ||||
| Autonomy | 2012 | UK and US | ||||
| Olympus | 2012 | |||||
| LIBOR | 2012 | UK | ||||
| London Whale | 2012 | UK | ||||
| Kweku Abodoli | 2011 | UK | ||||
| Jérôme Kerviel | 2008 | UK | ||||
| Bernie Madoff | 2008 | US | ||||
| Amaranth | 2007 | US | ||||
| Tyco | 2002 | US | ||||
| Parmalat | 2003 | Italy | ||||
| Freddie Mac | 2003 | US | ||||
| Global Crossing | 2002 | US | ||||
| WorldCom | 2002 | US | ||||
| Enron | 2001 | US | ||||
| Long Term Capital Management | 1998 | US | ||||
| Yasuo Hamanaka | 1996 | UK | ||||
| Savings and Loan | 1995 | US | ||||
| Nick Leeson | 1992 | UK Singapore |