Wolf of Wall St? More like Hound of Hounslow...
HE IS the ‘high-frequency geek’ accused of wiping half a trillion pounds off the US stock markets in five minutes. The brazen British trader who allegedly told suspicious American officials just days later to ‘kiss my a***’.
But Navinder Singh Sarao is no ‘Wolf of Wall Street’. Instead, the man accused of triggering the 2010 ‘Flash Crash’ operated from his parents’ modest three-bedroom semidetached house in west London.
The 36-year-old trader, now dubbed the ‘Hound of Hounslow’, lives with his parents and drove their beaten-up Vauxhall Corsa. Schoolfriends recalled a ‘prankster who never got caught’.
Granting Sarao bail yesterday, even District Judge Quentin Purdy appeared a little sympathetic, telling him: ‘I suspect the last 24 hours have been somewhat traumatic for you.’
Sarao was granted bail until May 26 in return for a £5 million security. Just how a man who still lives with his parents in a London suburb can raise £5 million will be of interest to the authorities – and to neighbours who say there was no hint of his vast wealth.
Born in Hounslow, Sarao excelled at Heston Community College. Studying maths and science at A-Level and graduating from Brunel University in west London, he apparently spent his holidays playing football and badminton.
Neighbour Anil Puri said Sarao’s mother Darshaw Kaur Sarao used to work two jobs because his father Nachhattar Singh Sarao was diabetic and could not work.
Sarao’s brother Jasvinder is an optometrist and director of Specsavers, while his other brother Rajvinder lives with his wife and two children opposite his parents and works in IT.
School friends described Sarao as ‘a bit of a cheeky chappy but popular’, adding: ‘He was a bit of a geek but was funny also. He was a bit of a prankster but never got caught.’ In a yearbook, Sarao’s form teacher wrote: ‘Much stays the same – Navinder is still late most mornings…’