The SKADI Podcast

62. Private Debt, Lehman and Livedoor

In February 2005, while the Convertible Bond market languished in a vicious volatility crunch, Lehman Brothers in Tokyo stunned the market, privately financing a Moving Strike Convertible Bond for Livedoor. The Yen 80bn deal, worth approximately US$750m, purportedly made Lehman Brothers US$140m. But at what cost? Livedoor was later found to be an Enron style fraud, and the flamboyant Chief Executive Takafumie Horie faced jail. Using the Livedoor MSCB as a case study, Nic examines some of the risks and pitfalls of Private debt financing, and what Auditors, Compliance, Investigators and Litigators should be on the lookout for. #privatedebt #deathspiral #Japan #finance More about SKADI: Website: www.skadilimited.com X: https://x.com/skadilimited Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skadi-limited Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skadilimited/

61. Lorna Hajdini and Chirayu Rana, Investigation over Speculation

On May 1st 2026 the "Internet blew up!". Cannons, Fish heads, the intoxicating mix of sex, money and power. A now retracted court filing latched on to by the Daily Mail drew attention to a complex people investigation conducted by the Investment Banking giant JP Morgan. Thousands of reels, memes, carousels, generated on social media as the case played out in the court of public opinion. 12 months previously in May 2025 an employee filed an internal complaint which according to "sources" alleged race and gender-based harassment and abuse of power, before trying to negotiate a payoff that ran into “millions” to leave the company. Having conducted 16 significant regulatory, whistleblow and people investigations for peers of JP Morgan, Nic offers insights into how investigating this challenging conundrum may have been approached. #investigations #finance #race #metoo More about SKADI: Website: www.skadilimited.com [www.skadilimited.com] X: https://x.com/skadilimited [https://x.com/skadilimited] Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skadi-limited [https://www.linkedin.com/company/skadi-limited] Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skadilimited/ [https://www.instagram.com/skadilimited/]

60. Embedded AI - the Iceberg Risk for Sales

The Titanic was promoted as unsinkable, equipped with state-of-the-art safety features. But on April 15, 1912, it struck an iceberg, leading to one of the deadliest maritime disasters. This narrative serves as a powerful metaphor for the risks facing the sales industry today, particularly with the rise of AI and automated systems that, while designed to enhance efficiency, may introduce significant risks. As we embed AI into Sales and Distribution efforts, are we inadvertently inviting in behaviours which have taken decades to root out? Building on the previous episode on the SKADI podcast, we ask whether there is now an increased risk of mis-selling, due to Sycophantic AI's propensity to select from which truths to serve up to the user. Indeed glossing over, or even suppressing risks and negative features. A classic recipe for mis-selling.... #AI #Sales #IFA #Investmentadvice #Risk #Audit #Investigations More about SKADI: Website: www.skadilimited.com X: https://x.com/skadilimited Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skadi-limited Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skadilimited/

59. AI Sycophancy - Trading's Emerging Risk

Traders are often seen as cynical and paranoid individuals. But what happens when their reliance on technology, like AI, leads them to reinforce their biases instead of questioning their strategies? As trading teams get smaller, and roles are replaced with automation, are the controls devised over many decades fit for purpose in the emerging world of Generative AI? In this episode Nic takes a look at Sycophancy, and asks whether peer review risks being replaced with supportive AI, leading to increased risk taking, based on flawed assumptions. The recent paper by MIT academics Kartik Chandra, Max Kleiman-Weiner, Jonathan Ragan-Kelley, and Joshua B Tenebaum provides a useful look at "Sycophantic Chatbots cause Delusional Spiralling, even in ideal Bayesians". More about SKADI: Website: www.skadilimited.com X: https://x.com/skadilimited Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skadi-limited Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skadilimited/

58. Cornering Markets - Silver, Gold and Volkswagen

In the world of finance, few attempts to corner a market are as infamous as that of the Hunt brothers' silver squeeze in the late 1970s. With the backdrop of inflation concerns and a shaky economy, these oil billionaires embarked on a quest to control the silver market. They amassed a massive position, causing silver prices to skyrocket from $6 to $50! But, as often is the way with high-risk games, it ended in disaster for them. 100 years earlier, an equally audacious attempt had been made to corner the Gold market. Nic and Damian also discuss the squeezy derivative trade which at one point made Volkswagen the largest stock in the world. What do these case studies tell us about present day markets? What are the red flags for auditors, compliance and surveillance staff? More about SKADI: Website: www.skadilimited.com X: https://x.com/skadilimited Linkedin: ttps://www.linkedin.com/company/skadi-limited Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skadilimited/