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Guess we might want to reallocate blame for that $5 billion trading loss at Societe Generale

Leave a Comment / Fraud, Other stuff /
Sometimes it's complicated. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Sometimes it’s complicated. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.

One thing I’ve learned while being in leadership at my church is that a conflict that appears simple to outsiders is usually far more complicated and messy and ugly than it appears, with blame for a conflict sometimes belonging to the party that appears innocent.

I’m slowly catching on that maybe that idea sometimes applies to massive financial fiascos. (Yeah, yeah, I know. I usually catch on really slow.)

Who is at fault?

Back in January 2008 a trader, Jérôme Kerviel, engaged in €50B of unauthorized trades for Société Générale and hid his trades. That’s fifty billion euros. He admits to making fake entries to hide his admittedly unauthorized trades.

Unwinding the trades cost the bank €4.9B.

I recall at the time that the story line was he was a rogue, a scoundrel, etc., doing all this by himself, etc., single handedly pulling off a huge scam, etc, cleverly wending his way between those tight internal controls, etc.

Criminal sentence

Previously, Mr. Kerviel was tried and convicted on criminal charges. His initial sentence was five years, which was reduced to two years (I think it was 2 but maybe was 3).

He served five months in prison, according to the following article.

Wrongful termination

Well, multiple parts of the French judicial system are saying that allocating the blame is a bit more complicated.

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Guess we might want to reallocate blame for that $5 billion trading loss at Societe GeneraleRead More »

Guess we might want to reallocate blame for that $5 billion trading loss at Societe Generale Read More »

Another fiasco at Wells Fargo and another round of hearings

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Interior of Concord stagecoach at Wells Fargo's San Diego museum. Imagine sharing that bench for the 24 day run from St. Louis to San Francisco. Photo by James Ulvog.
Interior of Concord stagecoach at Wells Fargo’s San Diego museum. Imagine sharing that bench for the 24 day run from St. Louis to San Francisco. That’s round the clock for 24 days with the only stops to change horses and drivers. Photo by James Ulvog.

Wells Fargo got some more visibility this week for violating federal law on repossessing property from servicemembers on active duty. The CEO got another round of public thrashing, this time from the House of Representatives. The CEO and former head of community-banking forfeited a bunch of future compensation.

9/29 – Bloomberg – Wells Fargo Troubles Mount With Penalty for Soldiers’ Loans – Federal law has been in place since about 1940 that provides protection to servicemembers from collection efforts. The law currently says lenders have to get a court order before they repossess property from anyone who is on active duty. The law was rewritten in 2003 and has been updated since then.

The protections for servicemembers have only been around for, oh, about 75 years. Need I point out that is plenty of time for the compliance staff to catch on to the pertinent laws?

The Pentagon has a list of all active duty service members which lenders may access if they wish.

Two separate enforcement actions within two years against Wells Fargo for violations of that law suggests the bank may just have a systemic compliance issue.

The newest issue involves 413 alleged violations of the law. The bank agreed to pay $4 million for unlawful repossessions during a seven-year run. That’s an average restitution of about $10,000 each. In addition the OCC ordered the bank to pay a $20M fine for a decade’s worth of violations.

…

Another fiasco at Wells Fargo and another round of hearingsRead More »

Another fiasco at Wells Fargo and another round of hearings Read More »

Wells Fargo gets public whipping

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Wells Fargo museum in San Diego's Old Town State Park. Photo by James Ulvog.
Wells Fargo museum in San Diego’s Old Town State Park. Photo by James Ulvog.

The Wells Fargo CEO got a good whuppin’ yesterday. The Senators each took their turn striving for the lead quote in the evening news.

As usual, the comments on Twitter are entertaining. Deep thoughts range from wanting to throw all the bankers in jail to one person lauding one senator for having personally discovered and exposed the fake account fiasco. Really. One of the senators found this mess.

If your knowledge of Cold War history extends to knowing what a show trial is, ponder the visuals and theatrics of the hearing. As I browsed through my twitter feed looking at the linked photos, show trial is what came to mind.

9/20 – Wall Street Journal – Whipping Wells Fargo / The bank blundered, and the politicians will make it pay – Editorial provides valuable perspective. Opening paragraph brings together multiple ideas, which I’ll quote under fair use:

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Wells Fargo gets public whippingRead More »

Wells Fargo gets public whipping Read More »

Prep reading for today’s hearings on Wells Fargo fiasco in Senate Banking committee

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Wells Fargo Concord stagecoach. April 2012 photo by James Ulvog.
Wells Fargo Concord stagecoach. April 2012 photo by James Ulvog.

Before you tune in to the headlines generated by Senators striving for the best one-liner in hearings which will appear in the evening news, check out these background articles.

So far looks like there is stiff competition in the race for most outraged Senator. At the moment, Senator Warren is in the lead.

9/16 – CNN Money – Wells Fargo drumbeat grows louder. House launches investigation – The House Financial Service Committee will start hearings late in September. The Wells CEO has been called to testify.

The rhetorical trap already set by the minority chair of the Senate Banking Committee is that if senior management did not know this was going on then the bank is too big to manage. The choice, as she infers: senior management is complicit or the bank ought to be broken up.

…

Prep reading for today’s hearings on Wells Fargo fiasco in Senate Banking committeeRead More »

Prep reading for today’s hearings on Wells Fargo fiasco in Senate Banking committee Read More »

Pondering on the Wells Fargo fiasco and more news

Leave a Comment / Audits, Other stuff, Pondering /
Original finish on mud wagon used by subcontractor to Wells Fargo on San Diego-Julian run in 1870s. Wagon is housed at the Seeley Stable Museum in Old Town San Diego Historic Park. April 2012 photo by James Ulvog.
Original finish is visible on mud wagon used by subcontractor to Wells Fargo on the San Diego-Julian run in 1870s. Lighter and cheaper than the Concord wagon, this was useful in desert and mountain areas. Wagon is housed at the Seeley Stable Museum in Old Town San Diego Historic Park. April 2012 photo by James Ulvog.

Here’s a few articles that were interesting to me in the last two days about the Wells Fargo fiasco, previously discussed here, here and here.

  • First, a digression into the ethics and audit issues of systemic faking of accounts and coding diesel engines to cheat.
  • Next, pondering whether there will be any clawback of the $124M bonuses from the senior executive who managed the retail banking area.
  • Finally, two articles describing the DoJ opening a preliminary investigation.

9/14 – Prof. Mike Shaub at Bottom Line Ethics – Plausible deniability and the insulation of upper management – Prof Shaub ponders two fiascos in the news for the deeper ethical issues. Both the Volkswagon diesel engine scheme and the Wells Fargo fake account fiasco reflect poorly not only on the companies and their culture, but the state of ethics in business and our society.

We, collectively, need to grapple with those issues.

The article raises unsettling issues for auditors. Let’s ponder for a moment…How can we detect corporate cultures and entity tone-at-the-top environments which allow building a cheating code into the core operation of a company’s software? How can we detect an environment that incentivizes staff to cheat customers or risk losing their jobs for not hitting sales targets? Those are sobering questions.

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Pondering on the Wells Fargo fiasco and more newsRead More »

Pondering on the Wells Fargo fiasco and more news Read More »

Ripple effects spread out from Wells Fargo fake account fiasco

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Concord stagecoach painted in Wells Fargo colors, housed at the Seeley Stable Museum Hazard Collection in Old Town San Diego Historic Park. April 2012 photo by James Ulvog.
Concord stagecoach painted in Wells Fargo colors, housed at the Seeley Stable Museum in Old Town San Diego Historic Park. April 2012 photo by James Ulvog.

Unlike nudging Libor or Forex rates, it is easy to grasp that it is wrong to open bank accounts without a customer’s permission. The ease of understanding the mess is why I think the Wells Fargo fiasco is growing rapidly.

Here’s my free tip of the day on how not to handle a crisis: don’t blame it on the employees who got fired for breaking the rules to meet sales quotes set by management. That is the current strategy of the CEO:

9/13 (in print edition on 9/14) – Emily Glazer (have seen her name a lot on this story) and Christina Rexrode at Wall Street Journal – Wells Fargo CEO Defends Bank Culture, Lays Blame With Bad Employees – In an interview with WSJ reporters on Tuesday, the CEO blamed the whole mess on misbehaving employees.  He insisted there were not any incentives to improperly open accounts.

In the same interview, he indicated the bank will end its sales quotas for customer-facing staff.

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Ripple effects spread out from Wells Fargo fake account fiascoRead More »

Ripple effects spread out from Wells Fargo fake account fiasco Read More »

Followup on Wells Fargo opening accounts without customer permission

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Wells Fargo Concord stagecoach. April 2012 photo by James Ulvog.
Wells Fargo Concord stagecoach. April 2012 photo by James Ulvog.

When the leading article from the Wall Street Journal mentioned earlier was placed on the front page of the print edition, the headline of

 Wells Fargo Fined for Sales Scam

was in type 0.4 inches tall. Yes, I measured it.

That is the largest font I recall seeing on the front page in a long time. Maybe I don’t pay enough attention to font size, but still, that is the largest headline I recall lately. Isn’t quite the way you want to get your name on the front page of the Journal.

Here’s another article from the WSJ and a discussion from Rumbi Bwerinofa. Also, a study that quantifies the damage caused to senior executives earnings from the stigma gained by having a scandal-tainted company on their resumes.

9/9 – Emily Glazer at Wall Street Journal – Next Test for Wells Fargo: Its Reputation – The fiasco of opening accounts in customers’ names without their permission is a story that could cause reputational damage. Article says analysts are concerned and bank execs are worried how much this will damage earnings.

Difference with this mess from other banking fiascos is that this one is easy to explain and easy to understand.

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Followup on Wells Fargo opening accounts without customer permissionRead More »

Followup on Wells Fargo opening accounts without customer permission Read More »

Roman denarius

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Silver Roman denarius. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Silver Roman denarius. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Let’s take a look at the Roman Denarius. I’ve taken an interest in ancient currency and monetary issues lately, particularly as it give some insight into biblical times.

So, you can go along with me on the journey, if you wish. As a simple start, let’s look again at Wikipedia. Took a previous look at the Denarius here and here.

From about 200 BC until about 64 AD the Roman Denarius was about 3.9 grams, at 95% or 98% purity.

There is a comment that Tiberius slowly increased the fineness to 97.5% to 98%.  Tiberius accumulated a hoard of 675 million denarii.

Nero, who reigned from 37 AD through 68 AD debased the gold aureus from 8.18 grams of gold to 7.27 grams.

Article says 25 silver denarii are equal to 1 gold aureus.

How much was a denarius worth?

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Roman denariusRead More »

Roman denarius Read More »

Total cost of Alexander’s rampage

Leave a Comment / Economics, Other stuff /
Tetradrachm from era of Alexander the Great. Image courtesy Adobe Stock.
Tetradrachm from era of Alexander the Great. Image courtesy Adobe Stock.

This will be my final post on the finances of Alexander the Great.

Professor Frank Holt’s book The Treasures of Alexander the Great: How One Man’s Wealth Shaped the World explains the ancient record does not give us enough details to estimate the total expenses paid by Alexander as he rampaged around the world.

The total expenses based on identifiable items in historical narratives is aggregated by the professor in a formula as:

  • 189( X) + 69,176 talents

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Total cost of Alexander’s rampageRead More »

Total cost of Alexander’s rampage Read More »

A few stray tidbits on the cost of Alexander’s military

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Ancient Greek coins. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Ancient Greek coins. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Professor Frank Holt’s book The Treasures of Alexander the Great: How One Man’s Wealth Shaped the World explains there is little in the historical record on the cost or size of Alexander’s military. Here are a few tidbits which are visible.

Navy

Alexander learned to appreciate the value of a Navy. One data point is that in 334 BC he had 200 ships operating in the Aegean sea. No quantification mentioned of naval forces elsewhere at that or any other time.

Army

Figuring out how much Alexander spent to field his military forces is a game of stringing together many wild guesses. The author accumulated his own long string of guesses and assumptions for small units. He also quotes several other studies.

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A few stray tidbits on the cost of Alexander’s militaryRead More »

A few stray tidbits on the cost of Alexander’s military Read More »

Some tidbits on the spending side of Alexander the Great’s reign

Leave a Comment / Economics, Other stuff /
Ancient Greek coin. Alexander the Great and Apollo with the chariot of the sun. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Ancient Greek coin. Alexander the Great and Apollo with the chariot of the sun. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

I have been discussing Professor Frank Holt’s book The Treasures of Alexander the Great: How One Man’s Wealth Shaped the World . You can find other posts on the ancient finances tag.

The second half of the book explores Alexander’s spending. There is even less historical information available on his spending than on his looting.

One part caught my eye.

Alexander built about 13 major cities according to the educated guess in the book. That doesn’t include dozens of small villages or all the sundry fortifications.

One of these cities, Ai Khanoum, had three miles of wall, which is guessed to have taken 3,000 workers six months to build.

How much would that construction cost? I will make a wild guess.  …

Some tidbits on the spending side of Alexander the Great’s reignRead More »

Some tidbits on the spending side of Alexander the Great’s reign Read More »

The incredible wealth of Mansa Musa, the ancient emperor of Mali

Leave a Comment / Economics, Other stuff /
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.
Map of Mali courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.

Barron’s suggests Mansa Musa, the Emperor of Mali in the 1300s, was the richest man who ever lived.

Since I firmly believe that I am richer today than John D. Rockefeller was back in 1916, I would also insist that I am, right now, richer than Mansa Musa was in 1324. But that isn’t the point of the story. I’ll mention travel costs momentarily.

The 7/23 article from Barron’s gives a glimpse into ancient finances by wondering Who Was the Richest Person Who Ever Lived? / The Emperor of Mali lived on top of a 14th century Goldmine so prolific that it probably made him the richest person who ever lived.

Musa Keita I is referred to as Mansa, or Emperor, Musa. He was born somewhere around 1280 and died somewhere around 1337. He was the ruler of the Mali Empire which stretched across Western Africa.

Consider the economic resources in the area: gold and salt.

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The incredible wealth of Mansa Musa, the ancient emperor of MaliRead More »

The incredible wealth of Mansa Musa, the ancient emperor of Mali Read More »

A few more updates in the ongoing world-wide banking fiascos

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Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

A few recent reports: Reason for no criminal prosecution of one too-big-to-fail bank is that it was TBTF, an indictment and a settlement in forex cases, and progress in the money laundering investigations.

Since I use the term a lot, here is a definition of fiasco from Google:

a thing that is a complete failure, especially in a ludicrous or humiliating way. Synonyms: failure, disaster, catastrophe, debacle, shambles, farce, mess, wreck.

Seems to me throwing away $530 million of bank capital because bank staff and leaders wanted to cheat customers meets the definition of fiasco.

7/11 – Francine McKenna at Market Watch – HSBC wasn’t prosecuted because it was ‘too big to fail’: House Committee – A House committee concluded that HSBC wasn’t prosecuted for willful AML violations because it was TBTF. One part of the violations was intentionally leaving out of wire instructions any indication that the funds were related to activity in countries with bans.

Staff recommendations were to pursue a criminal prosecution. Attorney General Eric Holder determined the systemic risk was too high and thus agreed to a deferred prosecution agreement.

…

A few more updates in the ongoing world-wide banking fiascosRead More »

A few more updates in the ongoing world-wide banking fiascos Read More »

Guess on the value of all loot taken by Alexander the Great

1 Comment / Economics, Other stuff, Pondering /
Tetradrachm from Alexander the Great. Image courtesy Adobe Stock.
Tetradrachm from Alexander the Great. Image courtesy Adobe Stock.

My discussion continues of how much wealth Alexander the Great looted while on his rampage around the world. These calculations are based on two books I’ve really enjoyed:

Loot from Persia

Prof Holt provides a couple of ancient estimates of the total haul in Persia. Here is a recap:

  • ?? Babylon
  • 50k talents – Susa
  • 120k – Persepolis
  • 6k – Pasargadae
  • 26k – Ecbatana

That gives a point estimate of 202k talents. Back out some poetic license exaggeration and add an amount at Babylon about equal to Susa (author’s estimate) gives me an estimate of about 225k talents, give or take. That is only the precious metals without art, statuary, spices, clothes, pottery, or gold inlaid stuff.

In addition, Darius fled with maybe 8,000 talents, Alexander paid bonuses of around 12,000 talents to his soldiers, with another 2,000 talents to Thessalain soldiers. There was enough stray coins found a century later to mint 4,000 talents of coins. That is around another 26,000 talents or so of additional bullion. Add in the unquantifiable amount soldiers looted and all the non-bullion treasures means there was an incalculable amount of wealth looted from the Persian empire.

I’ll work with 202K point estimate, plus 50K from Babylon, less 25K for poetic license, plus 26K sundry disposition. That gets to a point estimate of 253K, with my very wild guess of a margin of error of minus 50K to plus 100K.  Let’s work with a 250,000 Talent estimate. That means I’ll roughly estimate Alexander looted 250,000 talents of silver-equivalent from Persia.

Total haul during Alexander’s extended raid around the world

The total haul from looting is estimated by the Prof. Holt as 69( X) + 216,820 talents, where X is an unknown amount from one raid or battle. The total is unknown and unknowable.

Shortly after that estimate the author adds in tribute from conquered areas that were not looted in return for payments and loyalty.

Total proceeds from the wars is then estimated in a formula expressed as 81.67( X) +311,761.

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Guess on the value of all loot taken by Alexander the Great Read More »

A few convictions of traders. Several walk.

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Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock
Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock

An ongoing challenge for law enforcement in pursuing charges against bankers is actually getting convictions at trial. Even manipulating Libor is a tough sell to juries.

For those who wanted to see bunches of bankers in prison stripes, keep in mind there is that hurdle of persuading a jury a crime was committed. It may be difficult, but is possible to do.

7/4 – Bloomberg – Guilty Ex-Barclays Trio Ends Another Libor Chapter for London – …

A few convictions of traders. Several walk.Read More »

A few convictions of traders. Several walk. Read More »