Cautionary tale of a Citigroup trader sent to prison

In May 2007, an ex-Citigroup energy derivative trader named Craig Gile was sentenced to a year and a day in jail after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy. Fortune has his thought-provoking story. The magazine paints a picture of a good man, trying to please his boss in a tricky area. As the entire subprime fiasco makes clear, valuing derivatives is more art than science. Gile was charged with making changes to a computer model that resulted in artificially high valuations of some options. Some might think this is an example of out of control prosecutors. Some might disagree. But it points to the need, not so much for more regulation, but for some sort of standards that bring more clarity to derivatives valuations. It may be that prosecutors have given up on the idea. We've seen nothing of this sort regarding the subprime fiasco.   

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