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52
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9
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1720s
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2024
Most recent
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Editor’s pick · Rogue Trader
The man who hid £827 million from a bank that trusted everyone
In 1995, Nick Leeson destroyed Barings using one secret account and the total absence of anyone willing to ask a hard question.
Issue No. 1
12 min read
Most read · Corporate Fraud
How Enron hid $30 billion in debt in plain sight — and won awards for doing it
Enron’s executives were named America’s most innovative company six years running. The fraud was hiding in the footnotes the entire time.
Issue No. 4
15 min read
Corporate Fraud
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Corporate Fraud
Enron: the smartest guys in the room and the $30bn they buried in footnotes
Six years as “America’s most innovative company.” The fraud was in the annual report the entire time.
No. 4
15 min
Corporate Fraud
Wirecard: the German fintech that fooled regulators, auditors, and the FT
A €1.9bn hole. A missing trustee account in the Philippines. And a COO who vanished into thin air.
No. 14
13 min
Corporate Fraud
Parmalat: the €3.9bn that wasn’t in a bank account that didn’t exist
Italy’s largest dairy company hid its debts in a Cayman Islands account. For eleven years. Nobody checked.
No. 3
10 min
Rogue Traders
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01
Rogue Trader
The man who hid £827 million from a bank that trusted everyone
Barings Bank · Nick Leeson · Singapore · 1995
Feb 1995
12 min
02
Rogue Trader
Société Générale and the €4.9bn bet Jérôme Kerviel hid in plain sight
SocGen · Jérôme Kerviel · Paris · 2008
Jan 2008
11 min
03
Rogue Trader
UBS and the $2.3bn that Kweku Adoboli hid using the same playbook as Leeson
UBS · Kweku Adoboli · London · 2011
Sep 2011
10 min
Banking Collapse
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Banking Collapse
Lehman Brothers: the weekend the world changed and the call that never came
$613bn in liabilities. 158 years of history. Four days to find a buyer. They never did.
No. 7
14 min
Banking Collapse
How Iceland’s three banks borrowed twelve times the country’s GDP
The fastest banking collapse in history. The warning signs had been there for years.
No. 9
14 min
Banking Collapse
Silicon Valley Bank: the most avoidable collapse in modern banking history
The risk was in plain sight. The regulators saw it. Nobody moved fast enough.
No. 18
11 min
Ponzi Schemes
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01
Ponzi Scheme
Bernie Madoff: the fraud that ran for 17 years because nobody wanted it to stop
Madoff Investment Securities · New York · 2008 · $65bn
Dec 2008
13 min
02
Ponzi Scheme
The original: how Charles Ponzi invented the scheme that bears his name
Securities Exchange Company · Boston · 1920
Aug 1920
9 min
Crypto Collapse
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Crypto Collapse
FTX: how Sam Bankman-Fried built a $32bn house of cards and called it altruism
The effective altruist who stole billions. The collapse that took eight days.
No. 11
16 min
Crypto Collapse
Terra Luna: the $60bn stablecoin that wasn’t stable for a single week
Do Kwon called sceptics poor. Then his stablecoin lost its peg in 72 hours.
No. 13
12 min
Crypto Collapse
Three Arrows Capital: the crypto hedge fund that leveraged everything and lost it all
Su Zhu and Kyle Davies borrowed billions. When the market turned, they vanished.
No. 15
11 min
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