JOHN RUSNAK, the currency trader who lost almost $700 million in rogue trading that brought down AIB’s US subsidiary Allfirst, has been released from prison after serving almost six years of a 7½-year sentence.
Rusnak pleaded guilty in 2002 to making fictitious trades to cover up vast losses from speculating on currency movements. He was released this month after his sentence was reduced for good behaviour and following treatment for substance abuse.
Rusnak (44) served his sentence at prisons in New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia, but the Federal Bureau of Prisons said he was transferred to a half-way house last June and to “home confinement” last September.
At his sentencing six years ago, Rusnak was ordered to pay back the $691 million he had lost, but prosecutors acknowledged that he would be unable to repay the entire sum and agreed that he should pay a minimum of $1,000 a month following his release. The money will go to MT Bank, which bought Allfirst from AIB following the scandal.
Following Rusnak’s conviction, AIB sued Citibank and Bank of America for $500 million in compensatory damages, claiming that the two US banks’ actions assisted the rogue trader. The action is still making its way through the courts.
