The Underworld of Private Banking

What goes on in the shady world of private banking? The crimes of Hernán E. Arbizu offer insights. As a banker at UBS and J.P. Morgan, Arbizu took millions of dollars from his South American clients, and funneled them into accounts of other clients who he had promised high returns. After being caught, he absconded to Argentina. Putting himself in the “3 percent of bankers who at some point get confused because of the pressure," he is candid now about his experiences: "We feel like we can take risks that other people don’t even dream to do, and that we can manage that risk—I don’t know why,” he tells The New York Times. Among his accusations is that UBS “didn’t have proper control over its bankers.”