Seven billion dollars? What seven billion dollars?

Unscrupulous financial transactions aren't very rare these days. 2007 alone saw several high-profile cases of embezzlement, ranging from a measly $52,000 taken from the Maryland State Insurance Trust Fund, to the case of Ms. Harriette Walters, who scammed the DC Government for $20,000,000. The modern monetary world is a mysterious, twisted place where assets can be disguised and transformed into all manner of things. Financial instruments obey Byzantine rules that are truly understood by very few people, and I'm pretty sure the New York Stock Exchange keeps a minotaur on staff to roam around the building and battle those who can't answer its ancient riddles.



Still, though, Jérome Kerviel (see above for dramatization) has set a new gold standard in the world of making money disappear. This one trader managed to defraud his employer, Swiss bank Société Générale, for SEVEN BILLION DOLLARS (or 4.9 billion Euros) by making a few unauthorized expenditures in the futures market with the bank's money. Geez... companies all say they want self-directed, self-motivated employees, but as soon as you show a little bit of initiative and lose seven billion dollars of their money, they get all uppity.