Millions Are Not Enough

Chutzpah. That's a word better known on Wall Street than in the City, London's equivalent, but, boy, even chutzpah doesn't do justice to this bonus tale.

A 38-year-old trader in London has filed a lawsuit claiming that his French employers shortchanged him $150,000 out of a roughly $2.1 million bonus he received in 2006.

The trader, Alexandre Mouradian, managed a team, seven employees and one consultant, that traded futures and options on global exchanges, the Financial Times reports. His trading desk was entitled to split a bonus pool equal to 60 percent of its net billed income twice a year. Mouradian got to decide how the bonus pool was split.

In the second half of 2006, he decided that out of the bonus pool of 1.43 million pounds, he would receive - surprise! - 92 percent of it.

Still, 92,571 pounds was improperly deducted from the pool, Mouradian claims.

His employer, Tradition Securities & Futures, is contesting the claim.

At a time when banks have had to rescue banks and the credit crunch is crippling the economy, whining about big bonuses is not very popular in Britain at the moment.

"Snout of Order" says the headline in the Daily Mirror.

Mouradian told the Daily Mail: 'I am far too busy working to talk to you, I am afraid. Anyway, it is impossible for me to discuss this case at the moment.'