Martin Taylor, the head of Barclays bank back when Bob Diamond was the new boss of Barclays Capital investment bank (“BarCap”) revealed to the press that he regretted not accepting Diamond’s resignation back in 1998 after he offered to quit because he took a big trading loss in the Russian market at the time. What’s more, BarCap apparently invested way too much in Russia making that loss not only large, but beyond acceptable policy where regulators knew, Taylor knew but the public did not. Yeah, that sounds like the Bob Diamond we all know and want to handcuff.

“I suspect the subsequent history of the business would have been very different had I asked him to go. I deserve blame for being among the first to succumb to the myth of Diamond’s indispensability, to which some in Barclays were still in thrall only a matter of days ago,” said Taylor.

This of course begs the question as to how he saw Diamond as indispensable if he took such large and unprofitable risks as head of an entire department, but I digress. However, it’s maintained by Taylor that Diamond’s epic memory loss came into play again, as apparently he had no idea of what was going on as Russia was crumbling economically in the 90s.

“We were clearly in for a serious loss,” Taylor wrote. “BarCap turned out to have an exposure significantly beyond the country limit that had been established. It had falsely marked some Russian banking counterparties as Swiss or American and had blasted through the ceiling. This breach was not made public, although the regulators were fully aware of it. We looked reckless, and our share price suffered serious damage. The traders were fired,” he said.

Saying that Diamond “felt terrible” about the loss and that he loved Barclays and offered to go, Taylor concluded differently, feeling that BarCap would fall apart without him, hence his decision and his subsequent regret.

Taylor left Barclays in 1998 and is now head of Syngenta, a Swiss based chemicals company that markets seeds and pesticides, and which OPPOSED GMO bans in Switzerland. When he left Barclays, Taylor’s goodbye was £4 million back in 1998. He is a known attendee at Bilderberg group and is an advisor to Goldman Sachs.

Thanks for coming out to the public, Mr. Taylor.

Story is HERE.

There’s no “banking like the good old days” line coming, as Taylor probably has his own list of underhanded dealings and crimes to sweep under the rug, so he emerges as a sort of character witness to damn Bob Diamond, add some drama and perhaps bring out some sympathy for Barclays – might as well get the “old school” banker who used to finance things.

If the angle is to set up Bob Diamond as the sacrificial lamb and fall guy for all of the Libor crimes then it will fail, particularly because enough citizens are awake enough to know that this involves virtually the entire megabanking industry and permeates to the top levels of each bank and their respective home’s central bank – there’s no way regulators and central bank didn’t know this was going on, and for years.

If anything, Bob Diamond is probably miserable beyond belief, and misery loves company. There will be many more bank executives who are really nothing more than money laundering, rate rigging fraudsters ready to join him.