We usually love these Bloomberg profiles but today’s exceeds expectations. Tommy Maheras is the head of the fixed-income group at Citigroup and one of our personal heroes. The actual moment he entered the DealBreaker Pantheon is when he refused to fire the London traders who executed Dr. Evil—a trading scheme that involved dumping unprecedented amounts of government bonds in a few instants and then scooping them back up when the selling volume pushed the pricing down. It made the desk a $18.2 million profit in less than ten minutes but angered regulators and eventually hurt Citigroup’s ability to attract debt business in Europe. But Maheras stuck by his boys.
The article mentions Maheras’ friendship with Jamie Dimon, now the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, but leaves unexplored one possible source of their connection—both are descended from Greek immigrants. If Maheras one day becomes the top dog at Citigroup, two of America’s most prominent financial institutions would be led by descendants from a very, very small population of Greek immigrants—not much over 200,000—who came to the US in the last century. That’s a pretty swift climb to the top of the economic ladder.
Maheras, Citigroup’s High Roller, Sheds Caution in Profit Quest [Bloomberg]