Jacques Letertre

"Jacques Letertre. He succeeded because he went fast. In less than four years, he became the president of Duménil-Leblé, a former small brokerage house that became a bank, and he is at the head of a colossal fortune. His recipe: take full advantage of the pitfalls of regulation whenever possible. Initially, he fully benefited from "interest rate spreads" by detecting the very lucrative niche of arbitrage between the money market and the bond market: Duménil issued 2 to 10-year bills on the money market, then carrying an interest rate of around 9.5% at 5 years. He simultaneously subscribed with the capital raised to bonds of the same duration yielding up to 11%. It was enough to pocket the difference. It took his success for the Bank of France to regulate activities on "interest rate spreads" and limit the jackpot."

"Later, Jacques Letertre specialised in the technique known as Greenmail. It consists of buying a package of shares in a takeoverable company with which the repurchase of these securities is renegotiated at a generally higher price under the threat of selling them to a potential acquirer."