6 Banking Scandals That Will Make You Sick

07-13-2012 • http://www.businessinsider.com

On September 15, 2011, the financial markets were rocked by the news that a rogue trader at UBS lost $2.3 billion through fraudulent trades.

A mid-level trader, Kweku Adoboli, was arrested and charged with "fraud by abuse of position and false accounting," dating back as far as 2008.

Regulators questioned no one at the bank noticed that a mid-level employee racked up losses large enough to require a bailout from Swiss taxpayers.

During the height of the subprime mortgage meltdown, Credit Suisse announced that it would take a $2.9 billion write-down on its collateralized debt obligations (CDOs).

What was most interesting about this scandal is that two Credit Suisse employees, David Higgs and Salmaan Siddiqui, admitted to fraudulently inflating the value of the bank's CDOs so that they could collect larger year-end bonuses and make their boss happy.

According to Forbes, Higgs and Siddiqui pled guilty to the scheme in February 2012. Siddiqui said in court, "I was directed by my boss and my boss's boss. I knew what I was directed to do and did was wrong." More arrests are expected.