Category: Life Lessons

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What are the cleverest scams you have come across?

This scam was quite elaborate but guaranteed success many times over and it involved a delivery of a (non-existent) large order of steel from Asia to Europe.

A man with perfect and in-depth knowledge of the steel market calls an Italian, French or German company manufacturing products which require huge quantities of steel: usually big construction companies, large pipes manufacturers, etc. This is an industry with fierce competition and razor thin margins where companies are fighting every day to catch some lucrative business.

The gentleman claims to be the representative for Italy / France / Germany of a Swedish company called XYZ Ltd which works in the metal business (there is fake website arranged with fake phone numbers, fake registered office, etc.).

The gentleman knows in depth what he is talking about, he shows connections with other big and international companies in the steel market, has worked with this and that guy, he has been in the business more than 30 years, etc. etc.

The gentleman offers to negotiate a large scale delivery of steel for a large (but not “impossibly large”) discount from a big and well known steel company either in South Korea or China as long as the purchaser was willing to pay 100% of the (discounted) purchase price upfront.

We are talking about an order of a few million USD of steel.

All communication was done by fax or by e-mail attaching other faxes, letters, documents, quality certificates, etc.

The whole communication from the Korean or Chinese companies was totally forged with fake email addresses and fake phone numbers.

In order to prevent any scam, at the moment of purchase the parties exchanged the money paid with a First Demand Bank Guarantee issued by a well reputed European Bank: by holding the original of the Bank Guarantee the buyer was 100% safe that if the metal was not delivered they could go to the Bank and ask for the money back without any exception whatsoever (this is standard practice for large scale contracts among big players). Please note that this required the scammers to have a bank account with the bank and deposit there at least an amount of money equal to the value of the Guarantee the Bank was going to issue (i.e. these guys were professionals with millions of USD at their disposal).

At the moment of exchanging the guarantee the parties met at the Bank’s premises and, with an excuse, the scammers were able – almost like magicians – to take possession of the original of the Bank Guarantee (which was supposed to be in the hands of the buyer the whole the time) and while people were amiably chatting about the steel market, they changed it with an almost identical color copy (they kept the original and gave the buyer’s representatives the color copy) under the eyes of the Bank’s and the buyer’s representatives. Keep in mind that this was done at the Bank’s premises, so this required amazing manual skills, speed of execution and cold blood.

Delivery of the steel was supposed to happen in 60/90 days from the exchange of the price with the Bank Guarantee.

24h after the exchange, the scammers went back to the Bank handing back the original of the guarantee and claiming that performance had already occurred so there was no need for the guarantee anymore.

Once received the original of the Bank Guarantee, the Bank immediately cancelled it (and the underlying obligation protecting the buyer vanished) thus releasing the money deposited by the scammers in the bank account.

The buyer remained in contact with the (fake) representative of the Korean and Chinese companies for a few weeks: after a month or so they stop answering the emails and phone calls.

Immediately the buyer realized that maybe there was something fishy.

After some further investigation and realising that even the Swedish intermediary company has now disappeared, they decide to rush to the Bank and request the payment of the Bank Guarantee.

The Bank confirms that the Bank Guarantee has been already cancelled 24h after being issued by returning the original document of the Guarantee that was now in their hands.

The parties compared the two versions of the Guarantee and realise that the one in the hands of the buyer was just a well made color copy of the original in the hands of the Bank.

In the meantime the scammers had all the time to transfer the purchase price to various bank accounts in Switzerland and then Cyprus and then elsewhere leaving no trace.

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What is the single best financial move you have ever made in your life?

My single best financial move was when in 2008 (just before the Financial Crisis) I decided to invest every month a certain amount of my salary in a moderately risky ETF like Vanguard’s VOO or VIG: I did this no matter what and never touched this investment for a decade.

I also increased the monthly investment as soon as my career progressed so not to fall into the increased lifestyle trap like I observed my peers were doing.

This is admittedly a “boring” strategy than anybody can follow and does not require you to learn exotic options or get any insider information.

After I started a decade ago, also my mum, my little sister, my girlfriend, my old uncle and a few of my friends (all of them completely alien to any financial knowledge or investment experience) also took this (long-term) approach with excellent returns.

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Has anyone surprised you after their death, e.g. receiving an organ from a donor, a sizeable inheritance, or a visit from a friendly ghost?

This did not happen to me but to a good friend of mine.

She had a boyfriend a bit older than her and they were a great couple. She was a medical student in her mid twenties and had a troubled past. He was a lawyer in his mid forties and was already divorced once. Once they became a couple he quickly turned her life upside down: she was naturally an introvert while he was the star of every party, a fantastic storyteller. He subtly and gradually pushed her out of her shyness egg to try to experience new things together. He taught her to drive and when she finally got a driving license, he bought her a small second-hand Fiat 500. He taught her new recipes to cook and they traveled a lot together across Europe.

They had been together for a bit more than one year when suddenly one day he died of heart attack. Apparently he had an undiagnosed problem with his heart and died in his sleep.

Her life was authentically destroyed. She had been grieving for months until one day she was driving the car and in a split-second of absent mind she crashed into the car in front of her. Luckily she was not injured and the damage to the cars was not really big: she stopped the car on the side of the road in order to fill the joint accident statement.

She struggled to stay calm then opened the passenger seat compartment where she found the car’s hand-book with the form to fill.

Once she opened the hand-book she unexpectedly found a hand-written message from her boyfriend saying something like this:

“Darling don’t worry! If you are reading this it means that you are not badly injured. That’s great! Don’t worry if it was your fault: these things happen! Don’t worry if the car is destroyed: we will buy a new one as this is actually quite old already. Now go ahead and fill this form: write slowly and double-check what you write, even if you are a bit in shock. Also double-check what the other driver writes so that you both agree on how the accident happened. Don’t worry about anythingelse: I’ll wait for you at home. I love you.”

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What are the top bad habits that should stop immediately?

My advice is to stop the following bad habits:

  1. Stop keeping cash in your bank account: save money and, after you have set up a good emergency fund in cash, invest everything else in one or more low-commission, index-tracking, ETF funds, as soon as possible. The “VOO” (Vanguard 500 ETF) and “VIG” (Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF) are two good starting points. This must be a priority. Because compound interest takes time to produce its amazing results, the earlier you start, the better. (Since many asked in the comments, I also recommend to Google: compound interest + dollar cost averaging. In short: if you will be constant with this two-pronged strategy, you will do better than 90% of the fund managers worldwide.)
  2. Stop smoking, doing drugs, drinking alcohol: they do not add anything to your life, and only subtract cash from your bank account (that you should rather invest in ETFs).
  3. Stop watching TV: same as alcohol, TV does not add anything to your life. By not watching TV, you can spend more time reading interesting non-fiction books to educate yourself about the most different topics. Knowledge has a powerful compound effect: as you progress putting different knowledge eggs into your basket, your analytical firepower will gradually increase and the benefit that you will derive will be exponential. TV does not add anything to your knowledge basket. Sell it, and invest the money (either by buying ETFs or by buying many interesting books) instead.
  4. Stop eating outside: learn to cook your own meals.
  5. Reduce Social Media: remove the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest apps from your iPhone so that you can only access them via your desktop computer (you will automatically reduce your wasted time by at least 90%).
  6. Stop sitting on the couch playing PS4: it’s probably as bad as Facebook. Every time you want to play a game, go for a run outside instead.
  7. Stop surrounding yourself with all these fake friends you don’t care about: they don’t care about you either and they will dump you at the first time you will be in need. It is better for you to be prepared not to count on them (or on anyone, actually). Text/call/see your parents/grandparents more, instead.
  8. Stop shopping to impress or please other people. It doesn’t work. They will still hate you even if you have a new car or some ridiculous Gucci shoes. The rare, true friends will like you and be at your side regardless of what you own. Once you will start doing this you will learn that you are not what you own. Acquiring this mindset will free you from a thousand mental layers that cloud many of our life choices. It feels amazing.
  9. Stop accepting wrong things in the status quo: you can change things for the better. It just needs a brain and hard work.
  10. Stop being a cheapskate: show the fewpeople that matter to you how much you care about them. Bring flowers to your girl/wife/mum/grandma. Make a nice wedding gift to your best friend. Offer discreetly to pay a dinner out if your friend cannot afford. Be a gentleman for all people you interact with. Write a thank you card to a colleague who was helpful in a difficult situation. Be grateful, very grateful, for these good people that touch your life kindly. Do not be afraid to spend money for those who are important for you and deserve your attention, kindness and generosity. The sky will not fall if you spend money and give them your attention and, most importantly, they deserve it. I have seen countless of truly good persons being hurt, friendships broken-up in horrible ways, just because of people being outright stingy. Also, remember to give a part of your profits to a charity that is important for you: the good these people do to this world is invaluable.
  11. Stop not taking (calculated) risks: career-wise,with time we all get lazy and tend to accept the current status quo: our job, our boss, our colleagues, our commuting, etc. This translates into fantastic opportunities being lost because we are too scared to abandon what we consider our current safe harbour (which most of the times is not much more than a steady salary). If you hate your job, if every Monday morning feels sour, if at work you are not respected for who you are, if your boss does not appreciate your efforts, if you are not paid enough, if your last salary increase was ridiculous: these are all signs that should push you to reconsider your career choices and check if anything better is available on the market. Nothing out there? Not all hope is lost: keep in mind that there has never been a better time in the history of civilization to be your own boss and start your own business.
  12. Stop taking new debt. Ditch your credit cards. Pay all the new stuff you want to buy upfront. No exceptions. If you cannot afford something upfront, simply do not buy it (most likely you will not need it anyway). Same for the mortgage: rent / share a cheap place and invest your savings in stocks instead.

Edit: I revised point 5 in order to also include Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest.

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I want to quit my job and start my own business. Where should I start?

First: do not quit your job (yet). A steady income will not only give you money to pay bills and buy rice & beans, but also the mental freedom to take time for yourself at night and weekends to start a new business.

Second: use nights, weekends & holiday time to study awkward and neglected business niches. It can be anything from stamps, to girls’ bracelets, dog’s collars, whatever. These niches are most of the times too small for deep-pocketed players to enter into, but big enough for small players to enter and profitably market their products without big marketing investments.

Third: once you have found an interesting niche, start selling your products there through one of the many available online portals (it can be Amazon, or Etsy, or Ebay). You will understand that every niche has its own preferred channel: use the most common one to achieve the initial lowest selling friction. Once you have learnt how to use this channel, you can start selling on different channels so to (hopefully) multiply your results.Action is very important. Do not think too much, do not wait to have the best product ever. As soon as you will start selling you will acquire knowledge of your market niche and you will learn from your mistakes (even if you are not able to sell at all).

Fourth: periodically evaluate your results. If you are not making at least 1000 USD of monthly profits after approximately the first 3 months, you must re-focus on a less exploited / more fertile niche. Margin is essential. This is just a business: you are not marrying your next wife. If it does not work, learn from your mistake and move on.

Fifth: after a few attempts you will get better (and luckier) and find a profitable niche. Once your own business stars yielding approximately 10k USD a month of monthly profit you can evaluate whether to ditch your job and focus exclusively on your own business.

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How did you lose your wealth? How much did you start with, and how much was left after you lost it?

My uncle (the brother of my father) never got married. He was born in 1950 and always lived the good life: he never had kids, not one Euro of debt, drove fast German cars, had amazing girlfriends (women literally adore him), made exotic travels, had tailor-made suits, knew literally most of the Bel Paese best restaurants in big and small cities alike, etc.

He started working in the Italian branch of a British company (at the time based in Naples) at 21 as a clerk and became a top manager in his late 40s. He was suddenly fired in the late 90s because of a restructuring and since he was already in his late 40s it was impossible for him to find a similar job at a competitor. Actually he could not find any job at all. Once out of the job market for a few years he basically gave up on looking for even a low-level job.

Nevertheless, he had saved enough money to make a (very good) living without any job: in particular his wealth consisted of 4 flats in the city center where he was living. Normally, he would sell one flat and make a living for the next 10 years. He calculated that his flats would allow him plenty of money for the rest of his life.

In 2004 he was driving on the highway late at night when a truck driver crashed on his sporty car (police ascertained that it was not my uncle’s fault).

The accident was very serious: my uncle was taken to hospital in critical conditions, had a few surgeries and eventually had a heart valve replaced during a very risky operation.

When he was still at the hospital, the insurance very ably tricked him into quickly signing an amicable settlement for 70k Euro: this seemed a lot of money right after the accident but soon revealed to be “peanuts” given the kind of injuries he suffered and the expenses he would have subsequently incurred in order to fully recover.

He got the insurance money immediately.

The surgery, rehabilitation and other expenses of the next 5 years basically cost him one of his flats (i.e. instead of lasting him 10 years, it lasted only 4-5).

Most importantly, after his heart was fixed he was not allowed to drive a car for some time and was very lonely (old friends disappeared quickly), slipped into depression and his lifestyle changed: he was buying a myriad of useless stuff like (admittedly majestic) Iranian carpets and expensive furniture, he was traveling continuously to some exotic locations with some new fake friends, had a few high-maintenance girlfriends scattered across Europe, etc.

The money from the second flat he sold lasted him only 4 years.

After he sold that second flat, he remained with only 2 more flats (and he was living in one of them).

He finished the money of his third flat in 3 years. He gradually started selling, one by one, all the useless stuff he bought (often times for very little money).

He then went into “panic mode” since he had no money, no other income and only his flat where he was living.

Also, because of the recent economic downturn in Italy and lack of expensive refurbishment works, his last flat was rapidly decaying and had dropped in value almost 40% in just a few years: to sell it would have been a disastrous decision.

At that point he was basically broke as he had one asset — the last flat — but had literally no cash.

He sold his last “substantial” asset (a Toyota Yaris he bought used just a year earlier) for 3k euro.

With this money he managed to live 3 more months when he received a letter confirming that the State will finally start issuing a pension.

This was summer last year: since September last year he is a happy – albeit very frugal – pensioner.

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How did Jews escape Germany in World War Two?

In order to escape Germany, a jewish family had various routes:

a. The Western Route: obtaining a Visa to France or Switzerland;

b. The Eastern Route: once reached Trieste, there was the Lloyd Triestino express passenger route to Bombay and Shanghai by sea. Many jewish families used this route to eventually reach Australia.

c. The Southern Route: from France or Italy to Northern Africa.

d. The Northern Route — through the Baltic sea, which was immediately cut as soon as the Nazi invaded Poland, first, and, later, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Switzerland was considered quite safe throughout the war, but there was always the fear that Hitler would have eventually invaded even the Swiss territory. As we know, the Nazis even started planning for it.

For this reason many jewish families decided to try the French route: at the time, France had one of the largest army on the planet and had a history of good integration of the jewish communities in the French social and political fabric.

After having entered into France (relatively safe until 1940’s invasion), the jewish family could either settle there (especially in the South) or had to find a way to go to the border with Spain and get a second Visa to Spain.

After 1940’s occupation, la Republiquewas not safe anymore (even for high profile “ethnically-jewish” families who had long converted to catholicism) and, at the southern border, the lines of people trying to enter the (relatively) safe Spanish territory became interminable: the wait for normal people to get a Visa was normally of weeks (if not months) and many of them were eventually denied the Visa.

There were exceptional cases of high profile / wealthy individuals who were able to get the Visa to Spain skipping the long lines (most probably by bribing the right person at the Embassy or by using ultra-high level connections in the French / Spanish diplomacy).

For example: André Meyer — the legendary (jewish) partner of the French Bank Lazard Freres & Co. who later became the financial advisor of American Magnates and CEOs and even of Jackie Kennedy — was able to leave France through Spain, with almost treasonous speed, given how difficult this was even for other members of his own family(*).

Even after entering Spain (under the Fascist’s Francisco Franco regime at the time), the odyssey was not finished as there were no direct, accessible, connections to the Americas and the Generalissimo’s regime — formally an Ally of Hitler — was not a guarantee of a safe haven for the jewish community.

Those wanting to escape to US, for example, had to either reach Portugal or Morocco or Algeria (depending on which Visa they would get first) and then obtain (normally after many months’ wait) the even more coveted Visa to the US.

Once in Portugal, for example, there were at least the following options:

  1. By plane: there was the Pan Am Clipper— a large seaplane — connecting directly Lisbon to New York (with a short refueling stop in the Azores) with an almost impossible “waiting list”; or alternatively
  2. By boat: there were the American Export Linesships also connecting by sea Lisbon to New York.

I hope this helps!

(*) The Austrian-born Felix Rohatyn — himself son a Polish jewish — recalled that until very recently there were relatives of André Meyer whom he met in Paris many years after the war when he was appointed US Ambassador in France, saying that they will never forgive André for leaving and leaving them behind because he left through Spain and they were not able to do so. Mr. Rohatyn himself, together with his family, left Austria for France in 1935 and, after Hitler’s invasion in 1940, unable to follow the Spanish route, started a two-year odyssey which took him first to Casablanca, then Oran (Algeria), Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro and, finally, New York City (mostly thanks to forged Visas and the help of legendary Brazilian Ambassador to France, Martins de Souza Dantas, later dubbed “the Schindler of Brazil”).

You can also watch the very interesting video below of Mr. Rohatyn himself explaining how he escaped the Nazisduring WWII:

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Is there really such a thing as a professional “hitman”, or are they just a creation of fiction writers?

I work in finance and I am not a criminal lawyer (thus I don’t have a big professional experience on the subject) but I once stumbled in a case with not just one but two hit men.

A Milanese, extremely wealthy, investment banker in his 50s, with the typical “perfect” family (a beautiful wife, his only son studying in London, an awesome mansion, etc.) had a South American “lover”.

She was very beautiful, albeit jobless: she was a sort of former prostitute / former model, even if the line between her two jobs was really blurred.

Everything went fine between the two until she (unexpectedly) got pregnant.

She did not ask him for money, but asked the Milanese Banker to marry her.

This was simply not an option for the Milanese Banker so he had the very “smart” idea to hire two Venezuelan drug dealers to kidnap the girl and eventually kill her.

The two drug dealers were paid a 50% deposit upon taking the instructions, with the promise of receiving the other half once their job was completed.

The two Venezuelans swiftly kidnapped the girl while she was jogging one morning and took her to an abandoned building at the outskirts of Milan.

They kept her there a few days while they were discussing vigorously how to kill her (apparently even for a professional hitman it is not so easy to shoot and kill a pregnant woman).

Eventually they realized that they did not have the heart to kill her (and the baby) and they set her free.

They also kept the 50% deposit they already got and went back to their normal drug dealing business.

In case you are interested in how the story ended up: she went back to normal life and started getting a small “salary” from the Milanese Banker (she gave up on the idea of marrying him anyway).

A few weeks after giving birth to a beautiful baby boy, she confided the kidnapping to a friend during a walk in the park.

This friend went to the police and, after some checking, they arrested the Milanese Banker a few days later…

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What do Italians call “La Bella Figura”?

Bella (or Brutta) figura means: Looking Good (or Bad) in the eyes of society.

This is an extremely powerful concept in the Italian Culture where everybody is subject to and judged by the “Social eye”.

An example of this concept may be the following.

In 2000, Fiat Auto was collapsing because of persistent poor sales and inability to penetrate the global markets and it was on the verge to be sold to the then Daimler-Chrysler group for 13 Billion USD.

This would have required Gianni Agnelli to admit his failure as the entrepreneur who inherited the company from his grand-dad. Selling to Daimler-Chrysler would also have meant thousands of blue-collar jobs to be erased overnight in his home-town, Torino.

In other words, to sell the Company, even if it would have yielded 13 Billion USD for the shareholders of a quickly declining company, would have been for l’Avvocato (“The Lawyer”, Gianni Agnelli’s nickname) a terrible “Brutta Figura” and, as Vanity Fair once commented: “This is the classic term for just about the worst crime an Italian can commit: looking bad in the eyes of society. Agnelli knew that the sale of a 100-year-old Italian car-maker to the Germans would have made him appear treasonous.”

To keep the Company and save it together with thousands of jobs at home would have been a “Bella Figura”, regardless of the price to be paid in order to achieve it.

Naturally, Gianni Agnelli opted not to sell “at all cost”.

The company shed 10 Billion USD of its value in the following 3 years (a bloodbath for the shareholders who lost 75% of their investment) and the whole “extended” Agnelli family’s stake in the company was virtually pulverized in order to save the Company (of the 80+ members of the extended Agnelli & Nasi families, only John Elkann remained with a substantial control stake) but, thanks to the Bella Figura,their face in front of society was saved.

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Are you bullish or bearish on Bitcoin?

Look: I will cut the story ultra-short (oversimplifying for the sake of brevity).

  1. Scarcity: there can only be 21 million Bitcoin ever to be mined.
  2. Security:So far the Bitcoin protocol has been proven unbreakable in its aim at preventing double-spending: the cryptography behind it has been 100% bulletproof.
  3. Decentralization: Nobody can sue Bitcoin as there is no Bitcoin Corporation: it is fully decentralized and the Bitcoin protocol will be alive as long as there will be an internet connection and some miners keeping the network alive.
  4. Network effect:Nobody knows for sure what will happen in the future but almost everybody is coming to terms with the fact that Bitcoin is becoming the decentralized, digital version of gold (a store of value accepted from the US to Saudi Arabia, from Moscow to Paris, in Africa as well as in India). No other digital currency has been able to match Bitcoin’s network effect. It is an amazing technological advancement, a generational shift.

If you are able to invest your money during the dips and ably buy at least 1 Bitcoin while everybody else panics, you will certainlybe among the top 21m Bitcoin holders on the planet. This means that you will be in the top 21m holders — on the planet — of next generation’s gold. Even if you are able to buy only 0.1 Bitcoin, you will still be among the top 210m holders on the planet (and there are 7bn people around!). Already an amazing achievement.

People still have not realized how rare Bitcoins are if you think in planetary terms and the fantastic potential of the technology, its decentralisation and its monstrous network effect.

Obviously there are risks but this is an asymmetrical bet, with known, limited losses if the project somehow fails and unlimited potential if it succeeds.

Short term price fluctuations should not distract anybody: there are very few opportunities like it in the market today and if you “get it”, investing in it is a no-brainer.

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How does it feel to narrowly miss a flight which subsequently crashes and leaves no survivors?

Augusto Bianchi, one of my former bosses, was a very wealthy Milanese business lawyer and in the 80s he missed a flight that ended up crashing.

The day he missed the flight was a Thursday and he was so grateful with the destiny for the incredible struck of good luck that he decided to give a party at his legendary Corso Venezia mansion in Milan for every Thursday of the rest of his life.

He kept his promise and his parties, called “Il Giovedí” (Thursday in Italian) became a sort of small cultural phenomenon in Milan (I just found that they are also mentioned on his Wikipedia page: Augusto Bianchi Rizzi – Wikipedia) and they won a Milanese Municipal Award in 2012.

He even founded a “Il Giovedí” Book Prize to encourage and promote the books of young Italian writers.

Sadly, he prematurely died of cancer on October 2014.

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What happens if I do not eat for 2 days?

I did it last December.

The fasting started at midnight of a Thursday so the first “lunch” that I skipped was the Friday breakfast and I went on until Saturday at Midnight.

The first 24h you will feel a slight (albeit persistent) sense of hunger but physically and mentally you will be fine (almost 90%, I would say).
I recommend you to drink abundant water (+ an espresso when you feel a bit sleepy).

The second day (the Saturday) the sense of hunger subsidizes a little but you will feel increasely tired and it will take you a bit longer to do simple tasks and also focusing on certain things.

Unexpectedly I had to work very hard that second fasting day because of an emergency at work (I had to walk a lot bringing some heavy stuff to some places and also focus to write some long work-related emails) and, as a consequence, I got a very strong head-ache + strong sense of vomiting which I can only link to the fact that I was fasting (and not drinking enough of water).

I interrupted the fasting after 48h.

By the way: fasting for 3 days (72h) is recommended to reboot your immune system: Fasting triggers stem cell regeneration of damaged, old immune system

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Why is there a giant middle finger outside of Milan’s stock exchange?

It is a sculpture from Maurizio Cattelan recently placed in a quiet square in front of the Italian Stock Market.

It is considered a giant “F**K YOU” to the Stock Market from the “People”, whose “fingers” have been butchered by the scammers-turned-entrepreneurs who have dominated the Italian Stock market for generations.

It is a fierce critique of the “Italian” way to interpret the capitalism whereby the profits are quickly secured by the “entrepreneurs”, the losses are subsequently “socialised” among thousands of small investors and the regulators and politicians consistently turn the blind eye so to keep the game going.

It is a very good reminder, especially for all the people working at the Stock Market (so called “entrepreneurs”, investment bankers, lawyers, accountant, auditors) of the disasters that they have contributed to commit against the small investors.

Almost none of them will face the consequences of their crimes or negligence since in Italy the legislation is on purpose extremely bland against these types of crimes but they have a perpetual reminder made of marble placed there to remind them of what the Italian people think of them.

The location of this iconic sculpture is fantastic as it is placed exactly in front of the Italian Stock Exchange which has seen a multitude of Stock frauds carried out in the last 20 years without the regulators being even remotely able neither to tackle the core issues of a too-easy-to-rig stock market, nor to appropriately punish the multitude of “white-collar” professionals who actively contributed in executing them.