The Most Notorious Rogue Traders In History

Kweku Adoboli, 31, was arrested by police in London for his alleged rogue trading scheme that lost UBS a whopping $2 billion.

Adoboli might be joining a group of other rogue traders who've lost their firms a lot of money.

Jerome Kerviel lost $6.7 billion for Société Générale.

Société Générale's "rogue trader" Jerome Kerviel lost the French bank approximately $6.7 billion through arbitrage of equity derivatives. His unauthorized trades racked up a $6.7 billion loss that was revealed in 2008.

In October 2010, he was sentenced to three years in prison.

He's planning to appeal.

Nick Leeson lost $1.3 billion for Barings Bank.

Leeson was a derivatives broker at Barings Bank where his unauthorized trading on Nikkei futures accumulated losses of $1.3 billion.

This eventually led to the collapse of the oldest U.K. investment bank.

Leeson moved to Singapore where he enjoyed a lavish lifestyle and made plenty of money for a few months.

For a time, he was able to hide his mounting losses in a special account known as the "five eights" account.

He was eventually caught and sentenced to five years in a Singapore prison in 1995.  In prison, he acquired cancer and his wife left him.

He was released in 1999 and now does keynote speeches.

Yang Yanming lost $9.52 million for the China Great Wall Trust and Investment Corporation.

Yang Yamming
Yang Yanming, a former securities trader and head of China Great Wall Trust and Investment Corporation, was sentenced to death by a Chinese high court in late 2005 for embezzling millions of dollars.

He refused to reveal the whereabouts of 65 million yuan ($9.52 million) of the misappropriated funds.
He was the first finance executive to receive the death penalty in China.

Jonathan Bunn lost $3.91 million for Lewis Charles Securities.

Jonathan Bunn worked as a broker at Lewis Charles Securities where he wasn't allowed to prop trade, but he managed to do it anyway by tricking back office employees by writing out false-deal slips.

Bunn shorted 7 million HSBC shares using Lewis Charles Securities money.  His accumulated losses were $3.91 million.

As a result, Bunn was banned from the industry by the Financial Services Authority.

In addition, Lewis Charles laid off some of its employees.

John Rusnack lost $691 million for Allfirst Bank.

Rusnack, a currency trader at Allfirst Bank, lost a total of $691 million on his bets. AIB Group, Allfirst's parent company, sold the firm to M&T Bank.  More than 1,000 employees lost their jobs thanks to Rusnack's losses. 

Brian Hunter lost $6.6 billion for hedge fund Amaranth.

Brian Hunter, an ex-trader with the now-defunct Amaranth hedge fund, bet on natural gas futures back in 2006 that caused the fund to lose $6.6 billion.Earlier this year the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission fined him $30 million for manipulating gas prices.

Toshihide Iguchi lost $1.1 billion for Japan's Daiwa Bank.

In 1995, it was revealed that Japan's Daiwa Bank suffered a $1.1 billion loss thanks to more than 30,000 unauthorized trades in bonds over a period of 11 years from Iguchi.
He was imprisoned in 1996.

Robert Citron lost $2 billion Orange County, California.

In 1994, Robert Citron was Treasurer-Tax Collector for Orange County, California.

As treasurer, Citron used a series of highly-leveraged deals that included repurchase agreements and floating rate notes.  At one point he was able to achieve leverage 292%.

The funds he managed were worth around $8 billion, but he was counting on interest rates remaining low or else he stood to lose big time. 

Interest rates did rise and as a result, Orange County losses amounted to $2 billion and the county was forced into Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

Yasuo Hamanaka lost $2.6 billion for Sumitomo.

Yasuo Hamakana, who was once nick-named "Mr. Five Percent" and "Mr. Copper" because of his aggressive trading style in the copper market, caused Sumitomo to lose $2.6 billion from his unauthorized copper trades on the London Metal Exchange. 

As a result of his rogue trade, Hamakana was sentenced to eight years in prison in 1988.  He was released in July 2005, a year before his sentence was supposed to end.