The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals

When formal charges were read in the Second Chamber of the Riksdag, just before midnight on April 5, they seemed indisputable. Investigators estimated the loss at 2 billion kronor, more than Sweden’s national debt.8

Simply put, without Ivar Kreuger, modern securities regulation and litigation would not exist.

The lesson of Ivar Kreuger is not that his businesses were illegal. It is that they were alegal.

From the moment the two met, the power balance shifted, just as it had with Donald Durant in 1922. Ivar charmed Marcosson like no foreign leader or movie star ever had. Marcosson found Ivar soft and persuasive in speech, modest and unostentatious in manner. He was utterly without vanity, almost self-effacing. He seldom spoke of himself, and Marcoss

Ivar’s performance during these talks was enormously impressive, and he held forth on a tapestry of topics. According to one source, every night Ivar would stuff his memory with details about some obscure matter, such as Hungarian financial statistics, and the next day he would ensure that the topic came up and then would recite every memorized det

According to Ivar, by 1932 he had 225 subsidiaries. He had operations in every civilized country except Russia, and he manufactured three-quarters of the world’s matches. Ivar had secured match monopolies in twenty-four countries. During seven years, he had loaned almost 300 million dollars to European governments. Ivar’s loans had helped borrower

He also mentioned Ivar’s response to a question about what three things accounted most for his success. The answer, which became emblazoned in the public’s memory, was: “One is silence; the second is more silence; while the third is still more silence.”

Ivar had always been a charming guest, and he put on an urbane show for the Marcossons. But anyone who knew him well would have seen a new person. One of Ivar’s most consistent traits since childhood had been that he rarely laughed. Yet now he was suddenly a comedian, relaying humorous anecdotes throughout the day and cackling after the punch lines

Throughout this time, Ivar appeared entirely without concern. Although he sensed the increasing panic, along with everyone else, he didn’t want anyone in New York to see him falter, particularly given the market’s decline. He knew markets reflected emotions and perception. In finance, there was no such thing as reality. There was only, as Pierpont