Cynical Capitalist

Non U.S. Scandals

The BCCI saga ranks as one of the biggest banking scandals of all time, with BCCI owing more than $18bn to its creditors. The bank had lost money hand-over-fist from its lending operations, its foreign currency dealings, and its deposit accounts. It was also the bank of choice for money-launderers and terrorists, ranging from drug money from Colombia and Panama, funding for the Mujahideen in Pakistan, and Abu Nidal in the Middle East.

One.Tel was a group of Australian based telecommunications companies, including principally the publicly listed One.Tel Limited (ACN 068 193 153) established in 1995 soon after deregulation of the Australian telecommunications industry, most of which are currently under external administration by court appointed liquidators. One.Tel attempted to create a youth-oriented image to sell their mobile phones and One.Net internet services. It became Australia's fourth largest telecommunications company before collapsing in 2001. The Packer and Murdoch families were embarrassed by the failure of the company, especially after it was reported that both James Packer and Lachlan Murdoch had persuaded their fathers to back the company and invest.

Barings (founded 1762) was the oldest merchant bank in London until its collapse in 1995 after one of the bank's employees, Nick Leeson, lost £827 million ($1.3 billion) due to speculative investing, primarily in futures contracts, at the bank's Singapore office.

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