Nick Leeson of 2008?

On 24th Jan 2008, a French bank, widely regarded as the best trader of derivatives worldwide, discovered fraud in their midst. From posting a pretax profit of Euro 5.5 billion, it now has to raise Euro 5.5 billion in capital to prevent bankruptcy.

See below for links to the news articles:
Société Générale loses $7 billion in trading fraud
Shy, junior trader blamed for the fraud at Société Générale

This episode really makes one wonder, haven't the banks taken cue and learnt from Barings' mistake and tighten the controls on the trading of futures and other derivatives? It has to be noted however, that this around, it was discovered much earlier by the bank's auditors.

One thing though, I can't help but think that this poor man was made a scapegoat of the affair in a major cover up to protect the bank and its management from a variety of other problems. I mean, he seems like such an unlikely person to rack up such losses in a matter of days.