5 firms, 6 emails / Electronic chat transcripts that cost billions

A serious set of own-goals.

As Richard Nixon once may have said, it's not the crime that does it - it's the getting caught!

Here's a few email / electronic chat transcripts that these firms would rather forget:

'JOKE' EMAILS

You never know when those jokey emails are going to be used in evidence in a lawsuit, or looked over by regulators.

Goldman Sachs

Who could forget Goldman's 'Fabulous Fab', Fabrice Tourre, whose girlfriend emails cost the firm dearly ($550m to settle SEC fraud charges), and upset Belgian widows and orphans the world over:

The Goldman 'Girlfriend' E-Mails - How To Ruin A Career & Compromise Your Firm

Morgan Stanley

On March 16, 2007, Morgan Stanley employees working on one of the toxic assets that helped blow up the world economy discussed what to name it.

Among the team members’ suggestions: Subprime Meltdown, Hitman, Nuclear Holocaust and Mike Tyson’s Punchout, as well a simple yet direct reference to a bag of excrement (Shitbag):

The Morgan Stanley 'Sh*tbag' Email Shows Risks Of Joking Around

I FEEL SICK EMAILS

UBS

Then there's the email sent by UBS trader Kweku Adoboli to internal bank accountant William Steward advising that things might not be the way they seemed. Soon after, the shit really hit the fan and UBS realised it was sitting on a $2.3bn unauthorised trading loss.

The Email That Caused Panic At UBS

LIBOR EMAILS and their like

Barclays

Barclays had Libor issues last year, paid up to settle various probes, and also lost CEO Bob Diamond.

Hit the link below for 9 emails that cost Barclays $456m:

9 Emails That Cost Barclays $456m

Royal Bank of Scotland

RBS paid $612m to settle its Libor-rigging issues.

Hit the link below to access examples of alleged RBS trader misconduct:

Examples Of RBS Trader Misconduct

UBS

Emails, telephone calls and electronic chats were a crucial part of the damning evidence amassed in the UBS Libor-fixing investigation, which eventually cost the firm $1.5bn.

Hit the link below for some of the transcripts:

UBS Libor-Rigging: Broker and Trader Emails / Electronic Chat Revealed