John Rusnak, 37, of Baltimore is going to jail for the next seven and a half years. He tried to hide his market trading losses by a series of fictious trades and wound up losing $691 million plus change for his employer.

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, he collected about $433,000 in bonuses for a job allegedly well done, at least until the bank found out he was trading air.

Rusnak entered a plea agreement and was sentenced to jail, but he's free until January 17th, presumably so he can spend Christmas with the family.

His lawyer called the jail time "a bitter pill to swallow." Said attorney Dale Irwin, "It's a lot of jail time." It actually amounts to about a year for every $9.5 million. I wish I could pay off my debts at $9.5 million per. Good thing he wasn't caught with a couple ounces of marijuana or he'd be looking at really serious hard time.

As it is, he'll probably go a white-collar Federal prison and play tennis with other upper class con artists instead of having to meet Bubba and his buddies in the shower room. Good thing for him because he'd be swallowing a lot more than a bitter pill. . .
8:07:31 AM    Comments?()