Wall Street Trader bags world 156 mn pounds bonus

LONDON: A Wall Street trader has been given the largest bonus of 156million pounds by his employer Fortress Investment Group LLC, which wanted to stop him from leaving for a competitor or starting his own firm.

Thirty-eight-year-old Adam Levinson's windfall is about four times the 44million-pound pay package commanded by Merrill Lynch's John Thain, who was the highest paid U.S. chief executive last year.

Although Fortress declined comment, Levinson defended the award claiming that he worked 24 hours a day.

"I'm worth it," the Mirror quoted him as saying.

Levinson and his wife, who are well known on the New York social scene, recently had their first child.

The trader said that his job rather than the baby was more likely to wake him.

"Five months in, the baby sleeps through the night but the calls keep coming," he said.

He starts working at 6am, and goes to the gym at 4pm when the US market closes.

Two hours later, he again returns to his desk for the opening of the Asian markets.