Disgraced financiers are holding a 'secret party' on the 10th anniversary of the financial crash. But the "sickening" event certainly isn't the first case of bankers' boorishness.
Believe it or not hundreds of bankers responsible for the 2008 financial crash are having a 10-year reunion in what’s set to be a huge ‘secret party’.
Hundreds of former employees of the doomed investment bank Lehman Brothers are believed to be commemorating the collapse of the company in London this September.
Financial News, who broke the story earlier today, said the organisers were so nervous about the delicate nature of the event, the location has since change from The Conduit club in Mayfair to “an undisclosed London venue.
The financial giant that was Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on September 15, 2008, triggering the financial crash of that year. The consequences affected people worldwide, with thousands losing their jobs, and millions losing their savings and homes. Governments across the globe were forced to bail-out banks, losing billions of pounds in the process and forcing austerity measures on its taxpayers.
Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell commented on the event saying:
“This is absolutely sickening after a decade of people suffering austerity.
“It’s particularly disgraceful in the context of all the people who lost their jobs and homes to pay for bailing out these bankers who caused the financial crash, as well as against a backdrop of firefighters, police officers and other public servants facing years of brutal Tory pay restraint.
“People will be absolutely disgusted about this unacceptable and highly inappropriate gathering.”
His former colleague and Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time of the 2008 crisis, Alistair Darling, seemed to disagree, saying “it would be ridiculous” to stop innocent former employers from meeting.
Ex-staff reunions are also allegedly taking place in New York and Hong Kong in the next few months.
But this arguably not the first time financiers displayed some rather boorish behaviour.
Here’s a few other times bankers behaved badly with no bit of remorse:
Not so ethical banking
Former Co-Operative Bank chairman, Paul Flowers, was earlier this year banned from ever working in financial services again following a series of drug and sexual scandals.
In 2014 the bank was found to have a whopping £1.5bn black hole in its accounts. Shortly after footage of Flowers purchasing drugs in the back of a car triggered an investigation into the banker’s behaviour.
He has since plead guilty of possessing and consuming cocaine, ketamine and crystal meth. He was also found to have used work phones to call up adult chat lines. Later, and in spite of the previous warning, he used his work email account to exchange “sexually explicit and otherwise inappropriate messages, and to discuss illegal drugs”.
Millionaire muttonhead
Hedge fund owner Mark Lowe was taken to court in 2009 by his former employee Jordan Wimmer accusing him of a string of sexist remarks and inappropriate behaviour, including sexual harassment.
The Nomos Capital owner allegedly brought prostitutes into the workplace, and admittedly once told Wimmer to “work more and dress less.”
Wimmer’s case of dismissed by the Employment Tribunal arguing she didn’t raise complaints in an apt timeframe for it to be considered.
Why are you laughing?
Earlier this month, found transcripts of pre-financial crisis conversations between RBS bankers revealed how the financiers made jokes about destroying the US housing market.
In one conversation, a friend of RBS’ head traded was recorded saying: “[I’m] sure your parents never imagine[d] they’d raise a son who [would] destroy the housing market in the richest nation on the planet.”
The banker than quipped: “I take exception to the word ‘destroy.’ I am more comfortable with ‘severely damage.’”
The bank, which was bailed out in 2008 by the British government to the tune of £45 billion, had made millions in loans its own staff labelled “total f*cking rubbish”.
Joana Ramiro is a reporter for Left Foot Forward. You can follow her on Twitter for all sorts of rants here.
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