A YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR builds up an energy empire that takes
the US market by storm. He creates an impossibly complex financial
pyramid made up of hundreds of subsidiaries, on most of whose
boards he sits. He deftly juggles stock between these subsidiaries,
making his company the toast of the stock exchange, until the
market crashes, his investors lose millions, and he sinks in a
matter of weeks from national hero to figure of hate. He becomes a
symbol of greed and larceny and prompts the US president to promise
to winkle out corporate crooks like him and clean up the economy.
He goes into self-imposed exile.
Sounds familiar? But it's not Enron's Andy Fastow: it's Samuel
Insull (pictured right), one-time CFO to Thomas Edison and the
archetypal bad capitalist of the 1929 crash.
Insull built up what ultimately became known as the Commonwealth
Edison Company into one...
