British Broker's Drunken Trades

This puts all embarrassing drunk stories to shame: Steven Noel Perkins, a former oil futures broker, reportedly single-handledly lost $10 million for his company and caused the price of oil to rise last year after making a series of trades in an alcohol-soaked frenzy. According to British financial-regulator data released Tuesday, Perkins returned home from a weekend of boozing and golfing, and made $520 million worth of trades, pushing the price of oil to an eight-month high of $73.05—an increase of $1.65 per barrel. “He claims to have limited recollection of events on Monday and claims to have been in an alcohol-induced blackout at the time he traded,” according to the report. When Perkins regained consciousness from the massive bender, he tried to reverse the trades and later tried to claim the transactions were on behalf of clients. But the damage was done. He has been fined $107,600 for market abuse and has been barred from working in the financial-services industry for five years.