Premonition?


   
	
	
	From:  Jennifer Fraser                           10/04/2000 03:01 PM
	

To: John Arnold/HOU/ECT@ECT
cc:  
Subject: 
 British Trader Sentenced to Prison


this could be you

British Trader Sentenced to Prison 

                  By Jill Lawless
                  Associated Press Writer
                  Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2000; 2:07 p.m. EDT

                  LONDON )) A futures trader who bet the wrong way on U.S.
                  unemployment figures, and destroyed a company in 92 
minutes, was
                  sentenced Tuesday to more than three years in jail. 

                  "The position got worse and he was just numb," a defense 
attorney said,
                  comparing the debacle to a bad night at a roulette wheel. 

                  Stephen Humphries, 25, formerly a trader at Sussex Futures 
Ltd., sank
                  the company with losses of $1.1 million. 

                  "During that afternoon of Friday, Aug. 6, 1999, during a 
period of one
                  hour, 32 minutes, the company's hard-earned reputation and 
value was
                  destroyed at a stroke ... by the fraudulent trading 
activity of one man,
                  Stephen Humphries," said prosecution lawyer Martin Hicks. 

                  Humphries pleaded guilty to one count of fraudulent 
trading. Judge Denis
                  Levy sentenced him to three years and nine months in 
prison. 

                  Southwark Crown Court heard testimony that Humphries ran up 
the
                  losses by trading futures contracts in government bonds, 
and repeatedly
                  lied to superiors about his trades. 

                  When worried colleagues left to summon the firm's senior 
broker,
                  Humphries fled the building. 

                  After the huge one-day loss, the company's creditor banks 
balked and a
                  financial regulator was called in. Sussex Futures ) which 
employed 70
                  brokers ) ceased trading three months later with losses of 
$3.4 million. 

                  The court was told that Humphries' trading losses began on 
the morning of
                  Aug. 6, wiping out two-thirds of his $25,000 trading 
deposit by lunchtime.

                  The situation worsened at 1:30 p.m., when U.S. economic 
figures were
                  released showing no increase in the unemployment rate. The 
data made
                  U.S. interest rates more likely to rise and reduced the 
value of
                  fixed-interest investments such as British government 
bonds. 

                  Nonetheless, Humphries continued to buy, in quantities that 
exceeded his
                  trading ceiling. Questioned by co-workers about the large 
trades going
                  through his account, Humphries said he was in the process 
of selling out. 

                  By the time he fled, he held more than 100 times his 
trading limit in futures.

                  "In the course of an afternoon ... you ruined not only your 
own career, but
                  the career of many others and you caused a prosperous 
company, Sussex
                  Futures Limited, to go into liquidation, causing loss to 
the company which
                  trusted you and employed you," said the judge. 

                  Defense lawyer Simon Ward said Humphries had been under 
intense
                  financial pressure and was "deeply sorry." 

                  He had lost a previous job when a trading company he worked 
for went
                  under ) also at the hands of a rogue trader. 

                  He had taken out large bank loans, amassed a substantial 
credit-card debt
                  and had borrowed from his father's life savings. He and his 
partner, with
                  whom he had two children, had a third baby die, a blow that 
affected
                  Humphries' judgment, Ward said. 

                  "This is a tragic and very upsetting case," said Ward. "He 
was 24, under
                  intense financial and personal pressure and, in effect, 
lost his head at the
                  roulette table." 

                               , Copyright 2000 The Associated Press 

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