The Trials of J. David: A Ponzi Scheme's Aftermath

Jerry David Dominelli, of J. David Securities and J. David Interbank Foreign Currency, is now in jail. His investment firm is bankrupt, and the $112 million investors had put into his foreign currency trading operation has disappeared. Despite his ties with prominent firms, including the Rogers & Wells law firm and Prudential Bache, Dominelli, who apparently had engineered a Ponzi scheme, had a falsified investment track record and was never a competent stockbroker. Norman Nouskajian, a partner in Rogers & Wells and lawyer for J. David Securities, has been charged with the sale of unregistered securities, civil conspiracy, and legal malpractice. Dominelli supposedly compiled his successful investment record while working at Bache. However, John Farrish, manager of a Bache branch, said in 1982 that Dominelli lost money on a deal on which Dominelli claimed to have made $28,064. Some investors believe Bache knew enough about Dominelli's deceptions to stop him, and a group of about 33 investors plan to file suit against Bache. Dominelli apparently mixed customer money and corporate accounts, and financial experts say his books were a financial disaster.

Full text: Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly, May 7, 1984

forex trading system

Dollar Posts Decline In Quiet Trading; Canadian Unit Rises --- A Wall Street Journal News Roundup

The U.S. dollar dropped yesterday against the Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc and fell by more moderate amounts against most other foreign currencies. Trading, though, was very light, with several foreign markets closed for holidays and New York buried under a snowstorm. By late New York dealings, the Canadian dollar had climbed to 71.56 U.S. cents from 71.15 U.S. cents the day before. The Bank of Canada has been supporting the currency in recent days, but there weren't any signs of direct intervention yesterday.

Full text: Wall Street Journal, Feb 12, 1986

forex trading system

Japanese banks seen dominant in trading of world's currencies

A Reuter survey of foreign exchange traders, central bankers and government officials in the world's major currency trading centres showed that many believe Tokyo has overtaken New York in volume of business. With the focus of trading shifting toward the U.S. dollar/yen, it is Tokyo that often dictates the market's direction. A survey in March, 1986, by the Japanese, British and U.S. central banks showed London with $90 billion (U.S.) of trading each day, New York with $58.5 billion and Tokyo with $48 billion.

Full text: Toronto Star, Aug 11, 1987

forex trading system

CHASE MANHATTAN'S MAN IN HONG KONG

[Hugh Fierce] WAS reared in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn. (''We didn't find out it was a ghetto until somebody told us it was a ghetto,'' he says.) His younger brother, Milfred, earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University and is now chairman of Africana Studies at Brooklyn College. ''What drove my brother and me was my mother and my father,'' Fierce says. His father, Millus, worked as a receiving clerk in the textile business, his mother in real estate sales. ''Daddy was steady and sturdy. He made the sun come up each day. It was Mama who said, 'The sun is going to be golden.' '' Fierce again made the rounds of New York banks in 1963. Now, he recalls, the times were changing: ''The buildup of civil rights activities began to question the conscience of America, particularly of American business.'' He received expressions of interest from several banks, but an interview with Chase's personnel director made his decision easy. ''You have to understand that my wife and I were living at my mother's house in Brooklyn,'' he says. ''I went to the Chase Manhattan Bank building and it was 60 stories high, a mass of glass and steel. I was tense, nervous, but when I went in to see the personnel director, he put his feet up on his desk. He said, 'Relax, don't get serious.' Then he spilled his coffee and cussed. I thought it was great. I thought, 'This is the place for me.' '' International banks, especially those in Asia, have downplayed their commercial banking because the Pacific Rim countries are awash in liquidity. Japan's Nomura Securities reports that borrowing by East Asian and Southeast Asian countries dropped 24 percent in 1986 and 65 percent in the first quarter of 1987. Another major spur to the expansion into activities other than lending has been the banks' woeful track record in Latin America, where they have been forced to write off billions of dollars in loans. ''As a result of that experience, banks have turned more and more to nontraditional banking enterprises that do not put the bank's assets at risk,'' says Robert F. Grealy, Chase's Asia-Pacific director of international relations. ''So we're talking about service, currency trading, merger and acquisition arrangements, where the bank performs a service and there's no risk. That's what banks would rather be doing.''

Full text: New York Times, Sep 25, 1988

forex trading system

Pound Dominates Trading as Dollar and Gold Decline

The British pound dominated foreign exchange markets Nov 27, 1990, with the dollar falling against the pound and most other major currencies. Gold prices slipped lower to close at $385.20 an ounce in New York.

Full text: New York Times, Nov 28, 1990

forex trading system