Reckless by Andrew Gross Read Free Book Online Page A

Stan?”
    “Okay, Roger, l-look…” Biondi always spoke in a rapid cadence, but now he was almost stammering. “I admit, I may havelet some of this go on…We needed earnings. You know that. Marc always delivered. I realize how this looks. It didn’t all happen in one swing. It was gradual, over time. I know I’m on the line here…”
    “Let what happen, Stan?” Cantwell went to advance the screen. “The guy’s more than a billion dollars overdrawn. What kind of effing controls do we have here, anyway?”
    Sheet-white, Biondi grabbed his arm. “Roger, there’s more.”
    Cantwell looked up, his eyes no longer just on Stan but on Brenda as well, the compliance lawyer, wondering what she was doing here, a deepening worry building in his chest. “How much more? ”
    Biondi wet his lips. He typed in another account on the screen. A second ledger of stocks and open positions came up.
    Glassman’s.
    Another trading account.
    Roger Cantwell’s eyes stretched wide. The dread in his chest wormed straight to his bowels. “Stan, tell me what the hell is going on here, now… ”
    This new account held over $3.7 billion. That made over eight total. “It’s out of the Singapore office,” the head of trading said. “Roger, I don’t even know how this got set up. I know I once signed some letter of authorization that he could trade the Pac markets out of there…But a lot of this is just murky. Papered over. I still don’t understand—he’s been shifting funds between accounts, all over the globe, covering his trades…”
    Now a tremor of panic ran through Cantwell. This was all they needed. He put his fingers to his temples. “Are there more?”
    Sweat had come out on Biondi’s brow and he hesitated, glancing at Brenda.
    “Don’t screw with me, Stan!” Cantwell’s glare bore right through him. “Are there more?”
    “One,” Biondi said, swallowing. He brought up a last screen.
    The Recap read $2.8 billion. Two-point-eight billion. Dizzily,Cantwell started doing the math, but Brenda Pearlstein beat him to it. “It’s over eleven billion dollars, Roger.”
    Eleven billion dollars . Cantwell felt his legs buckle. He sank back down. Biondi could be fired for this.
    He could be fired.
    “How long has this been going on?”
    “A while.” Biondi fell into the leather chair across from him. “Look, you know the numbers, Roger. We needed earnings. Marc’s always been driving them. I just let it go on. But, Roger, listen, there’s—”
    Cantwell leaned forward and clicked back to the three Recap pages again. Most of the positions were in green. Gains. Each account showed Glassman well ahead. Up almost 7 percent. Close to eight hundred million. Thank God. An exhalation of relief poured out of him.
    “At least the little prick knew what the hell he was doing.” Cantwell blew out his cheeks, feeling a second wind, sitting back down. The bastard had done it again! This might actually help them.
    “Tell him,” Brenda said, her eyes trained on Biondi.
    The head of trading nodded, gulping.
    “Tell him,” Brenda said again, “or I will.”
    “Tell me what?” The iciness of her expression didn’t suggest she was buying Cantwell’s image of a happy ending. “Tell me fucking what, Stan,” he turned back to Biondi, “before I throw you off the forty-eighth floor!”
    “It’s a disaster,” the trading manager said, spitting it all out. “Worse than a disaster, Roger. All these gains…” He pointed to the screen, the columns of green. “ Here, and here…They’re merely paper trades. Made up. To cover his losses. They never took place, Roger.” Biondi’s face was white. “They’re all completely false.”
    “False…”
    Cantwell’s jaws parted as he stared at the screen, the full enormity of what Biondi was telling him slowly, impossibly, settling in.Their reserves were already shredded. The market would drop six hundred points tomorrow on the news. Their stock would open up at two.
    This