BOOTING OUT THE BANK

THE U.S. GIVES DAIWA 90 DAYS TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY AND ACCUSES IT OF COVERING UP $1.1 BILLION IN LOSSES

TO HEAR U.S. PROSECUTORS TELL IT, the stunts that Japan's Daiwa Bank used to conceal the nefarious conduct of its Manhattan office might have come from The Sting. The end result, however, was more akin to the farcical Dumb and Dumber. Among the flagrant ruses employed by Daiwa, prosecutors said, was disguising a downtown trading floor as a nondescript storage room during audits by Federal Reserve regulators. But no sooner had the Feds left than the traders reappeared--led by Toshihide Iguchi. It was his dual role as chief bond trader and bookkeeper that ultimately brought the bank to grief by enabling...

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