From Dishonesty to Disaster: The Reasons and Consequences of Rogue Traders’ Fraudulent Behavior

Purpose — The purpose of this chapter is to study the pattern of rogue trading, paying special attention to the aspects of the dishonest behavior of perpetrators.Design/methodology/approach — The chapter discusses selected cases of rogue trading that received the largest coverage by the mass media.Findings — No unique pattern of rogue trading schemes can be identified; however, certain similarities can be brought up based on the discussed cases. There are many aspects of dishonesty involved in fraudulent trading besides illicitness of unauthorized trading as such.Research limitations/implications — The chapter is based largely on a literature review and available data on the instances of rogue trading; probably, there is a vast amount of rogue trading cases undisclosed in order to draw a bigger picture.Originality/value — We apply the framework of white-collar crime process by McKay, Stevens, and Fratzl (2010) in order to clarify whether rogue trading schemes match the development of a typical white-collar crime. Conclusions are built on the analysis of several cases.