£150,000 fine for fomer CSFB chief

ONE of the most powerful former players in the derivatives market has been hit with the Financial Services Authority's biggest ever personal fine.

Chris Goekjian, the former chief executive of Credit Suisse First Boston's huge derivatives arm, was fined £150,000 for his role in misleading Japan's tax authorities.

Two of his then colleagues, Robert Stevens and Antony Blunden, were today banned from the City for their role in the scandal.

The fine was more than twice the previous biggest personal penalty, but is likely to be seen as petty cash by Goekjian, who is thought to have been paid multi-million pound annual bonuses during his 10 years at CSFB.

Goekjian, who celebrates his 42nd birthday this month, is now chief executive of a Mayfair hedge fund business, Altedge Capital.

Goekjian failed to properly supervise staff managing an audit by the Japanese tax authorities and failed to pick up and investigate warning signals, the FSA said.

FSA enforcement director Andrew Proctor said: 'This is an example of the FSA holding the senior management of a global company to account.'

Stevens, 41, former head of financial control, prepared misleading documents for the authority while Blunden, 53, the former compliance officer, failed to take remedial action.

CSFB, which paid a £4m corporate fine last year to settle its role in the 1996-98 affair, had no comment.