From the New York Times: "LONDON â Alcohol-induced behavior has produced many unintended consequences, but pushing up the global price of oil and losing $10 million must rank among the most novel. Britainâs financial regulator disclosed on Tuesday that Steven Noel Perkins, a former oil futures broker, single-handedly engineered a jump in the price of oil a year ago and cost his firm millions of dollars with a string of unauthorized trades after a weekend of heavy drinking. Mr. Perkins had just returned from a liquor-soaked golf weekend with colleagues in June of last year when he sat down in front of his laptop at his home east of London and started to place bets on Brent crude futures, according to a report by the Financial Services Authority. He continued to drink and place bets through the night, and by the morning of June 30, Mr. Perkins had placed more than $520 million worth of trades, at one point pushing the price of oil to $73.05, an eight-month high. The trades by Mr. Perkins were the main reason the price gained about $1.65 a barrel in just over two hours in the middle of the night, according to the report." http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/01/business/global/01oil.html?hp
or the real Nick Leeson either... <img src=http://www.quotenet.nl/Essent_Nick_Leeson_onzinverhaal_medium.jpg> Seriously, when have you ever been drunk and thought, hey what the heck let's go buy 7000 lots of oil and see what happens? this sounds really suspicious. Now if he would have said he thought he was in a simulated trading screen... then he would have had an almost believable story. why is he not charged criminally??