There have been a couple of scandalous incidents that piqued our interest this week but being overseas, they’re not quite the same as a bit of home-bred naughtiness. First out is the story of the commodities trader banned from the City for taking out a $10 million bet and concealing it from his superiors after a boozy three and a half hour lunch. That might get the hackles up on those still baying for bankers’ blood but it’s all about perspective…

David Redmond worked in the commodities trading department of Morgan Stanley in London. In the FSA’s report it said that on February 6, 2008 “Mr Redmond took an extended lunch break between 13.14 and 16.41 and it appears that this affected his behaviour on his return to the office, although he was not visibly drunk.” What they meant was that when he returned from lunch quietly pissed under the influence of alcohol, he got into the zone and made a whole bunch of trades on the future cost of freight. Dangerous Dave apparently made trades on average every 7.5 seconds for an hour and a half into the early evening, he then went home with the positions still outstanding and returned the following day to trade out of his positions for a small profit. Not unsurprisingly he was later unable to give a satisfactory explanation for his trading. Although he scored himself a ban, mutterings of “legend” can be heard in pubs across the City.

To keep things even spuriously legal, in another City scandal, the FSA has brought charges of insider trading against two lawyers involved in Novartis’ takeover of biotech firm, Neutec, in 2006. One is a current partner in the London office of Dorsey & Whitney, Andrew Rimmington, and the other is former McDermott partner Michael McFall. If they are found guilty they could be jailed for up to seven years.