Here he is, the evil ‘rogue trader’ Joseph Cassano, who dug a black hole in Mayfair “equivalent to the annual GDPs of Hungary and Denmark put together.”
Obviously, AIG’s Mayfair office in the heart of London’s hedge fund district has been dubbed the “ground zero” of the world economic downturn.
The small team, thought to number no more than a few dozen traders, was based at the fifth floor at One Curzon Street, Mayfair’s “hedge fund alley,” an address that became known within AIG as “the casino in London”.
It is apparent this is a (declared) reheat of Tuesday’s item on ABC News in the US, titled AIG’s Small London Office May Have Lost $500B – which, in turn, covered much of the ground previously covered in this three part investigation by the Washington Post, published at the end of last year.
Rather fresher is this Bloomberg story on how AIG is now spooking regulators and law-makers in the US by warning that unless it gets yet another bailout a “catastrophic” collapse is on the cards – the size of which would eclipse the Lehman debacle.
The “strictly confident” presentation to congressmen and the like is in the Long Room here.
Related link:
EXCLUSIVE: DAILY MAIL DISCOVERS EXISTENCE OF SUB-UNDERWRITERS IN B&B SCANDAL – FT Alphaville