An attorney who brought down many corporations (both good and bad) and a trader who almost brought down a large French bank. Probable alcoholics.
Under watch:
Attorney William S. Lerach, 61, sentenced to two years in prison for participating in schemes involving fraudulent class-action lawsuits against numerous large corporations on behalf of plaintiffs who received kickbacks. Lerach, who was known for “explosive” courtroom rants, will likely be disbarred. We might suspect that while some of Lerach’s victims, including a number of former Enron executives, got what they deserved there could be many who were true casualties. Although he has admitted that his “conduct was completely and absolutely unacceptable from anyone, and especially a lawyer,” we might speculate that alcoholism-fueled egomania drove him on both good days and bad.
Rogue Trader Jerome Kerviel, 31, almost brought down the venerable French bank Societe Generale SA with one-way trades losing $7.2 billion. He “skillfully” circumvented internal controls by building a multilayered way to hide his trades by hacking into computer systems and temporarily covering up his bets when checks were conducted. He also stole computer log-in passwords of colleagues in both the trading and technology sections of the bank, forged trade documents and quickly responded to supervisors who spotted errors in his books, telling them they were only mistakes, which of course he would correct. Kerviel, described as “brilliant” by one of his former university teachers, is said to have netted no personal gain from his scheme. However, the bank’s Chief Executive, Daniel Bouton, came close to one possible driver in telling the press that Kerviel’s motivations were “totally irrational.” Kerviel admitted to openly flouting the bank’s rules and, in testimony to investigators, scoffed at the bank for missing an elementary sign that something was amiss: he rarely took holidays, and as he explained, “a trader who doesn’t take holidays is a trader who doesn’t want his books to be seen by others.” In addition, Kerviel had asked for a bonus far beyond the norms for a trader at his level, reportedly burning with an “inflated sense of his own worth” (his co-workers’ words). While it’s possible that Kerviel acted without benefit of chemistry, the scheming, lying, cunning, forgery, belittling attitude, “irrational” motivations and inflated sense of self all point to the driving force behind most crime: alcoholism and an ensuing need to wield power over others.