Wall Street Is Full Of Psychopaths

Murder, Assault, You Name It: 12 Creepy Stories Of Psychotic Banker Behavior

Today, Bloomberg's Bill Cohen published a column based on a recent academic study. In it, he basically posited that the reason why Wall Street caused the financial crises is simple — it's full of psychopaths.

Interesting.

Well, we can't verify that, but we have definitely seen some deplorable behavior from people in the financial industry. And, even though these people are a small minority, they tend to stand out.

The trader who killed an IT boss with one punch to the face.

Jeremy Aylmer, a trader who worked for Chevron, was hanging out at a London club. At one point during the night he walked up to Jemina Luizaga to do a little flirting but got rejected. Alymer went up to Luizaga again later. It was at that point that 56-year old Charles Cox, formerly a VP of the IT firm EDS, told Alymer to buzz off. Still undaunted, Alymer approached Luizaga at the end of the night. Cox pushed him away, and then Alymer punched Cox. Cox fell to the ground, cracked his skull and died shortly after.

Alymer was acquitted of all murder charges.

The Brazilian central banker who plowed his car into a group of cyclists.

 I all happened when 47-year old Richard Neis was driving down the street in Porto Alegre during a 100+ biker Critical Mass demonstration in March of 2011. Neis claimed the bikers were harassing he and his son. The bikers say he simply told them he was in a hurry.
He was charged with attempted murder.

The Morgan Stanley senior partner who bit a junior partner's ear Mike-Tyson style at a dinner partner.

We don't think law enforcement was involved in this case, but it was recounted in Nina Godiwalla's book "Suits: A Woman On Wall Street" 

Godiwalla wrote her book about her experience as a first-year analyst at Morgan Stanley. Apparently, she was told that once, during an argument at a team dinner, a senior officer leaned over as if to whisper something in his junior colleagues’ ear and then took a bite out of it, “Mike Tyson style.”

The gold trader who killed his wife over gold, then plotted to kill the hit men he hired to do the job.

L.A. gold trader James Fayed was going through a messy divorce. His greatest fear was that his wife would give the court details about his international trades, so he had her killed. While in jail, he planned to kill one of the men he hired to kill his wife. 

Jurors in a court listened to a tape, that had secretly been recorded by Fayed's cellmate, in which he described his wife as "money-grubbing." He apparently said: "'If she'd just kept her mouth shut."

And then he allegedly complained that the hit men he'd hired had "passed up several better opportunities to kill his wife before choosing a crowded parking garage."

The investment banker who stalked a PR girl to South Africa, then allegedly bombed her house.

Shumsheer Ghumman, a 32-year old banker that runs his own "Capital Markets" firm, apparently met Hannah Rhind, a public relations professional, in 2009 at a London dinner and became obsessed with her. 
He allegedly followed Rhind to her parents' house in South Africa, hired a man to kill members of her family and then threw petrol bombs into her house.

This money manager made a "kill list" of 47 government regulators.

Vincent McCrudden, the founder and CEO of Alnbri Asset Management, allegedly made threats against 47 different government officials through e-mail. The 47 names were posted on his website and he offered up to $100,000 reward for proof that the officials had been punished. It seems like McCrudden felt wronged by something these regulators did, he apparently sued the SEC, the CFTC, FINRA, and the NFA for harassment in 2010 and asked for $1 billion in damages.

He was arrested in January 2011 for threatening to kill an SEC member.

Three Citibank debt collectors allegedly killed a customer for complaining about a bill in Indonesia.

What's worse, the customer killed was politician Irzen Octa, the secretary general of the National Unity Party (PPB). 
Irzen was apparently protesting a credit card bill of 100 million rupees, when he was expecting a charge of 48 million rupees. Tests showed he died of a broken blood vessel in the brain.

Hedge fund mogul Jeffrey Epstein had sex with under aged girls who were ordered for him as presents.

Epstein admitted to sex with a minor, but prosecutors estimated that there may have been up to 40 girls from around the world—South America, Europe and Russia—who were victims, including three 12-year-old girls ordered from France as a "birthday gift." Numerous girls filed lawsuits accusing him of recruiting them to perform "massages" at his mansion in Palm Beach. 

The JP Morgan affair that turned into a trans-Atlantic stalking nightmare.

It started as an affair between JP Morgan analysts David Gray and Daniela Rausnitz, despite the fact that Gray was married. When Rausnitz broke up with Gray and left for new gig in London, something in Gray snapped.
He followed Rausnitz to London, sent her endless text messages and e-mails (once 176 text messages and 23 emails over just 16 hours), faked illnesses in front of Rausnitz, planted a tracking device in her phone, told Rausnitz his sister was dead and also told Rausnitz's parents he was a member of the Israeli secret police.

The Merrill Lynch Banker based in Texas who assaulted a 9 year-old.

This is especially sad.
In 2010, John Thomas Bauer pleaded guilty to the following charges of a assault against a minor (under 14):

• aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14
• sexual performance by a child
• criminal solicitation of a minor
• tampering with physical evidence.

The banker who admitted to assaulting a maid in an NYC hotel.

Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar, the former chairman of Egypt's Bank of Alexandria and the Egyptian American Bank, plead guilty to assaulting a maid at the Pierre Hotel.

"The maid, Doris Offei, also on Friday filed a civil lawsuit against Omar in Manhattan federal court asking for $5 million in damages for the assault.

When asked in court on Friday during the criminal case if he kissed Offei on the lips and neck and touched her breast without her consent, Omar, who initially had pleaded not guilty and had been out on $25,000 bail, replied: "Yes.""

The trader clerk turned ten-time bank robber.

Stephen Trantel was down on his luck as a trader clerk so he, the son of a cop, decided to look into how to rob a bank without getting caught. He was so successful he did it ten times before being caught in 2004.
Here's how he did it (according to The Mirror):

Stephen focused on one bank at a time, choosing ones without a security guard. Observing that most blue-collar men and cops cash their checks on a Wednesday, he avoided mid-week heists.

He also planned an escape route beforehand, making sure to park a few streets away. On the day of the robbery he wore a disguise – usually a baseball cap, a fake moustache and sunglasses. He slipped larger clothes over his own and planted a coffee cup next to a dumpster near his truck.