Steve Perkins had a bad night. In 2009, the PVM oil futures broker got drunk, really drunk, so drunk that he doesn’t remember screwing us over. The broker was only allowed to place trades for clients. He got on and started trading via his laptop in the wee hours of the morning. By the end, he’d spent $520 million of PVM money without having to put much money down upfront. The next day, the damage had already been done and it cost the company $9 million to rectify the issue somewhat, which happened to be ¾ of the company’s annual revenue.
Perkins was banned from trading for five years with a possibility of lifting the ban after that time period. He also had to pay reparations for the damage he caused. On a wide scale, he brought the price of oil up $1.50 a barrel by morning and caused gas prices to soar.