After he was let go, he briefly joined hedge fund BlueCrest Capital Management LLP. When he was fired amid criminal and regulatory probes he lost about 40 million euros (S$64.7 million) in unvested stock. Internal emails seen by Bloomberg show that Bittar was likely read terse notes from human resources over the telephone that thanked him before being told his employment was being terminated.Īs a proprietary trader he was entitled to a percentage of the profits he made for the bank. He was fired in December 2011, as Deutsche Bank severed its ties with the trader to "best protect" itself amid the regulatory scrutiny. The trader, who has been described as soft-spoken, threatened to quit and join a hedge fund if his demands weren't met, according to a former colleague.īut the end came quickly for Bittar amid the mounting rate-rigging probes in the US and UK. He'd be at work every day by 6:30am, focused and intense.ĭespite his outsize bonuses, on several occasions he lobbied his boss to get a better pay deal. His car wasn't flashy and colleagues said sartorial elegance wasn't his top priority. One week he would be on an egg-only regimen and the next be back to eating junk food and downing Cokes.īut even after he became a wealthy trader, he still lived in a relatively modest London house - by banker standards - with his wife and children. He moved to Singapore with the German lender in 2010.Ĭalled Mr Basis Point by his colleagues at the bank because of his trades on minuscule changes in short-term interest rates, he was famous for alternating between fad diets and eating binges. Growing up in Senegal, Bittar showed an early aptitude for math and attended one of the top French Grandes Ecoles universities, according to two people with knowledge of his upbringing, who didn't want to be identified talking about Bittar's history.Īfter college he joined Societe Generale in Paris as a quantitative analyst, rising to the role of trader, before Deutsche Bank poached him for its London office. That year alone Bittar earned a £90 million bonus.īut he wasn't always wealthy. That paid off after Lehman Brothers Holdings collapsed that September and banks refused to lend to each other for all but the shortest periods. One trading strategy involved wagering the cost of borrowing in euros for three and six months would rise more quickly than one-month rates. His legend loomed large after he made a fortune for Deutsche Bank during the upheaval of 2008, by betting on short-term interest rates.
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