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▲ Joseph Gentile
It was belatedly revealed that the list of executives at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the United States, whose sudden bankruptcy sent global financial markets into a tailspin, included a former chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers, which triggered the 2008 financial crisis.
Fox News and Newsweek reported that SVB's chief executive officer, Joseph Gentile, had previously served as chief financial officer of Lehman Brothers shortly before its bankruptcy.
Once the second-largest U.S. investment bank, Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 in the subprime mortgage crisis, signaling the financial crisis that hit the world.
Gentile reportedly quit the company in 1, a year before Lehman Brothers collapsed, and moved to SVB the same year Lehman exited.
In 2007, Lehman Brothers' incompetent management was highlighted by the fact that the same investment bank, Goldman Sachs, had identified the signs of crisis ahead of time and avoided anger.
His presence was a hot topic on social media over the weekend, according to Newsweek.
Referring to his tenure at Lehman Brothers, people have expressed concern that the SVB bankruptcy will trigger a full-blown financial market crash, just as Lehman Brothers collapsed first during the financial crisis.
One Twitter user mentioned Gentile's existence, saying, "This is Lehman 2008.2."
Another user described it as "very unusual" for Gentile to take on executive duties in two bankrupt companies one after another.
Gentile and SVB have not commented on this content.
(Photo = SVB Securities homepage capture, Yonhap News)