Rogue Traders: Dennis Levine

Levine had it all planned out early. At the age of 27 he had conceived and begun to establish a vast insider-trading network with himself sat squarely in the centre.

During his career, Levine began to build up a network of people working at various Wall Street companies who began to exchange information and trade based on knowledge gained through work. Levine opened an account in the Bahamas – a country with very strict bank secrecy laws – with Bank Leu.

The scheme was solid and Levine wasn’t caught through his own errors. Even when Bank Leu noticed his suspiciously consistent profits it didn’t spell the end, they simply mimicked his trades for themselves, spreading the transactions over a number of brokers to hide the trail. Unfortunately one of the brokers also copied the trades and was picked up by compliance. The following investigation led all the way back to Levine. He pleaded guilty to his crimes and had to disgorge $11.5m of his illegal profits as well as serve a two-year prison sentence and pay a $362,000 fine.

Of course, he’s now seen the error of his ways and is now offering the classic ‘don’t do what I did’ style of motivational talks. He’s even released a book on the subject. All in the interest of public good, of course.