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Gold/Mining/Energy : Gold Price Monitor -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Graystone who wrote (81600)	2/6/2002 5:32:56 AM
From: E. Charters	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116815

Incoming money? shhhhhh flip flip flip, skitaahhh, flip, flip, shhhh,flick. friggingoldsdmnneeer300. Canyufrigginbeleeveit? It's an Enron! duck.... Hey,why did Enron hire its last group of managers? . . . . . . . . . . . . They wanted a turn around team. EC<:-}

To: Graystone who wrote (81600)	2/6/2002 6:09:57 AM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 116815

I hope someone tells me another story - fast - about the bankers & traders all being honest. Wednesday February 6, 5:19 am Eastern Time Bank Hit by $750 Million Suspected Fraud By Kevin Smith DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's largest bank, Allied Irish Banks Plc, was probing a suspected case of fraud amounting to $750 million on Wednesday in one of the world's biggest trading scandals since Nick Leeson sank Barings bank. In a further erosion of investors' dwindling trust in blue chip companies, the bank revealed that a trader at its U.S. banking subsidiary Allfirst was suspected of entering fictitious foreign exchange trades into the bank's books. The bank said it had called in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to help investigate the case and track down the unnamed trader who had gone missing from work. Shares in Allied Irish -- the country's largest bank by market capitalization on the eve of the revelation -- tumbled 15.5 percent to 11.50 euros in Dublin in early trade. Attributable profit for 2001 will slump to 401 million euros from 997 million after the impact of the loss. Finance Director Gary Kennedy rejected comparisons with the Barings affair, in which Singapore-based derivatives trader Nick Leeson ran up 830 million pounds ($1.17 billion) in unauthorized trades and brought the blue-blooded bank to its knees. He said Allied Irish was in no danger of collapse. ``I know people will draw the relationship to Barings but there are significant differences,'' Kennedy told Reuters in a telephone interview. ``This is not an event that is going to be fatal in terms of Aib.'' The announcement sent fresh shock waves through the Irish market -- already reeling from the share crash in recent days of Irish drugs firm Elan, whose accounting policies have come under question after the collapse of energy group Enron. ``It's certainly a blow to us, it's a lesson we have to learn from, but in terms of the capital strength of the company, while it has an impact it is not one that we can't sustain,'' Kennedy said. Allied Irish said the suspected fraud involved an American trader in the foreign exchange operation of the treasury department of Baltimore-based Allfirst. The trader is accused of booking fictitious option trades to make it appear as though he was using these to offset other foreign exchange transactions. The bank said it had taken action to hedge out the residual exposures on the options -- the loss would not get bigger. Several U.S. executives have been suspended pending the outcome of the investigations. The bank said the case would lead to a one-off reduction in group 2001 earnings of 596 million euro ($520 million) after tax. Before this charge, pre-tax earnings would total 1.4 billion euro. Chief Executive Michael Buckley described the incident as ''a heavy blow but not a fatal blow,'' adding that business was continuing as usual and the bank's position was strong. Allied Irish, which has closed down all foreign exchange trading operations at Allfirst, said the probe began several weeks ago but became more focused last weekend when the employee failed to respond to management queries. The trader, believed to be a native of Pennsylvania and aged in his 40s, has not returned to work since the suspected fraud was spotted. A team of senior treasury personnel from the bank's Dublin headquarters was sent to Baltimore on Monday. He pointed out that AIB's total capital position after the event was 6.8 billion euros and its Tier 1 ratio was 6.4 percent, which he said was strong by international financial standards. Banks have to set aside a certain amount of tier one capital -- typically equity -- to back its loan book. ``We feel we've taken corrective steps at this stage...we hope the shock will stabilize in the next few days and people see it as a once-off event. The bank is strong.'' Seamus Murphy of Merrion Capital expressed surprise at the announcement, coming in the wake of Elan's profit warning and concerns about its accounting methods. ``It certainly doesn't help the image of the Irish market internationally when we see these kinds of issues emerging,'' he said. ``We have resolute systems in place but unfortunately you can't always legislate for human intervention,'' he told Irish state radio. Allied's market capitalization at close of business on Tuesday was around 12 billion euros. ($1-1.146 Euro) ($1-.7069 Pound) biz.yahoo.com