'London whale' fiasco begs question: When do investments become bets and approach fraud borders?

"Call me Ishmael." That's the identifiable opening line for Herman Melville's 1851 novel "Moby Dick." In fact, the American Book Review listed it as No. 1 in its list of 100 best first lines from a novel. Flash forward about 160 years, and you have a French-born trader named Bruno Michel Iksil trying to harpoon one more whale of a trading deal for his firm, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Gregory Zuckerman in The Wall Street Journal May 17 article, "From 'Caveman' to 'Whale,' " writes that Iksil, a London-based trader in the chief investment office of JPMorgan Chase & Co., had bet $1 billion that companies like Eastman Kodak, Dynegy and American Airlines would default on their debts.