Six years ago, the investment bank Kidder Peabody named its biggest bond trader, an African-American named Joseph Jett, Man of the Year. Three months later, it accused him of single-handedly faking $350 million in transactions and practically destroying the firm. Now Jett tells his side of the story, claiming that the deals were sound and were carried out under his boss’s directions. Along with his account of Kidder’s fall, he offers a detailed memoir of his education and brief career on Wall Street.
A version of this article appeared in the November–December 1999 issue of Harvard Business Review.
