The vampire squid does it again!! Rogue Squid trader sent down for 9 months

Mr Taylor working the “slicked back” look..

Perhaps justice does finally catch up with people…

Rogue trader Matthew Taylor – a former Goldman Sachs employee was finally sentenced last week for a wrongdoing which occurred way back in 2007.

Mr Matthew Taylor was, it seems, just another trader who was trying to escalate his ascent within the Squid’s hierarchy in the hope of collecting one of those fat bonus at year’s end. However, in an all too familiar story, it seems that his trading went somewhat out of bounds… Likely at the point where he decided to accumulate and conceal a massive trading position around $9.3 billion! In the end, it seems that remorse got the better of him (or a tap on the shoulder and an imminent P45!) and he told his superiors at the Squid about it within 36 hours of the unauthorised trading. At the point he was summarily fired but somehow managed to obtain a new job at the “golf hoarders” Morgan Stanley and where he remained for a further four years before he was brought before the courts this year.

While Taylor admitted his guilt in his pleadings this year, the judge seemingly wasn’t satisfied with the way that the case unfolded and went on the record in severely criticising both Goldman and the government for taking so long to bring the misconduct to light. It seems the powers that be at Goldman fired Taylor but didn’t disclose the full extent of his misconduct to the regulators, so clearing the way for him to find another job as trader without suffering any consequences from his misbehaviour (what nice chaps they are eh?).

The judge in fact went one stage further, pointing fingers at both the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan and Federal regulators, seeming to imply that they only finally went after the rogue trader years after his offence largely for the publicity. They should have attempted to prosecute him when the misbehaviour occurred and not more than 5 years after. He also added that prosecutors crafted an artificially low sentencing recommendation just to secure a quick plea deal. Taylor could have in fact received several years of prison time for causing Goldman suffer to suffer an $118 million loss (all together now – ah diddums!).

Perhaps ironically, the judge not only sentenced Taylor to 9 months behind bars but also to 400 hours of community service by tutoring children from low-income families in maths!!! Perhaps now Taylor finally has a real opportunity to apply his MIT-acquired skills for something actually worthy and not enriching further those “God workers” at the Squid!

It seems that sadly for the industry, there is an ever increasing number of rogue trader cases as we saw with our coverage of the SAC Capital cases this year. It seems that these traders need some extra “leverage” (read illegal activities) in order to get the so coveted alpha; something which is becoming ever more correlated with scruples (or the lack of them) than with skill…