The New York Times reports that one Steven Perkins, a former oil trader based in London, set off a minor panic in global markets last June when he traded more than half a billion dollars in Brent crude oil after a night of heavy drinking.
According to British regulators, Perkins said he had been boozing it up at a company golf outing, fired up the old laptop when he got home -- and that's when he made the rogue trades.
Here's the regulators' account:
As a direct result of Perkins' trading, the price of Brent increased
significantly. Perkins' trading manipulated the market in Brent by
giving a false and misleading impression as to the supply, demand and
price of Brent and caused the price of Brent to increase to an abnormal
and artificial level.
In sanctioning Perkins, the FSA has
also taken into account the fact that Perkins initially lied repeatedly
to his employer in order to try and cover up his unauthorised trading.
In the full writeup explaining his $108,000 fine, we learn:
Mr Perkins’ explanation for his trading on 29 and 30 June is that he was drunk. He says that he drank heavily throughout the weekend and continued drinking from around mid-day on Monday 29 June. He claims to have limited recollection of events on Monday and claims to have been in an alcohol induced blackout at the time he traded in the early hours of 30 June.
Apparently Perkins has gone to rehab and is no longer drinking.
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