Sunday, April 7, 2024

WSJ: FINANCIAL FLASHBACK Joe Jett Kidder Peabody Scandal 1994

FINANCIAL FLASHBACK

A look back at Wall Street Journal headlines from this month in history

By Simon Constable

 30 YEARS AGO: Kidder Discloses Scam in Bonds, Fires Top Trader

In April 1994, investment bank Kidder Peabody accused its chief government-bond trader, Joseph Jett, of scamming the company. The affair added to the company’s already tarnished reputation, which had resulted from Wall Street’s insider-trading scandals less than a decade before. 

Jett had allegedly created false profits of $350 million to help boost his bonus to more than $9 million. He was accused of doing so by trading in so-called Treasury strips, or zero-coupon fixed-income securities, temporarily producing phantom profits.

The storm around Jett, who was dismissed by Kidder, came after the insider-trading troubles in 1986. Then, arbitrager Ivan Boesky was accused of insider dealing or trading on nonpublic information, by joining with a Kidder investment banker. Read more here.


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