FSA Sets Dangerous Precedent In Drunk Trader Case
I'm not promoting alcoholism, but like so many things in life, there are some activities many of you are better at while under the influence. Sadly, in London, one guy had to ruin it for the whole group. Steve Perkins, the oil trader who bought 7.13 million barrels of crude oil on behalf of his firm after "a drunken golf weekend" has been fined £72,000 and banned from the industry for a minimum of 5 years.
The 34-year-old, who lives in Brentwood, was a senior trader for PVM in the West End when he went on his spree last June. Working from a laptop at home after a weekend playing golf, he was able to move the oil market by engaging in huge amounts of speculative buying at ever-higher prices. In a statement, the FSA said: “Mr Perkins' explanation for his trading on 29 and 30 June is that he was drunk. He says that he drank heavily throughout the weekend and continued drinking from around mid-day on Monday 29 June. He claims to have limited recollection of events.”
The last transaction in his spree was made at 3.41am on June 30. In all, he bought futures contracts equivalent to nine million barrels of oil. He also sold about 2.5 million in futures. PVM did not discover the rogue trades until Tuesday morning. It dumped them as soon as it could with the price falling, at a cost to the firm of £6 million — a year's worth of profits.
The well-oiled rogue trader: City firm lost £6m after drunken broker bought 7 MILLION barrels of crude [Daily Mail]
'Drunken weekend' oil trader banned for £345m spree [This Is London]
