Strange stories have emerged from the recent, and ongoing, financial crisis. None of them are more disturbing than the tale of the mysterious Dr. Li. You haven't heard of him? Don't worry, I hadn't either until I was most of the way through a pile of books and articles about our financial situation

During the early 1990s a Chinese national who was supported by his government arrived in Canada seeking advanced degrees in mathematics. After several years of study he was able to obtain both a masters and a Ph.D. With these degrees in his pocket Dr. Li went to work for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. He gained experience there and around the turn of the century migrated to JPMorganChase in New York City.
The Barnstable Patriot - The mysterious Dr. Li

He arrived on the scene just as the mortgage securitization team was despairing of ever finding a way to make subprime bundles salable. At this critical juncture Dr. Li presented the team with the solution they had sought so feverishly.

His solution involved complex mathematics. The technique Dr. Li employed was called the Gaussian copula function. The result was a series of equations that put a percentage figure on the possibility that a large number of subprimes would default simultaneously




Revealed: The first picture of mysterious Dr Li, the £1.6m lover of shamed Rover boss



unrelated woman?

This is the first picture of the mysterious Chinese woman at the centre of the collapse of MG Rover.

Dr Qu Li was paid more than £1.6million as a consultant by the British car firm – at the same time as she was having an affair with one of its directors.

Dr Qu Li of China Ventures Ltd

Dr Qu Li was paid £1.69 million GBP for her services at MG Rover

Her company website boasts of its expertise in global acquisitions, business planning and contract negotiation.


Dr Li, the £1.6m lover of shamed Rover boss | Mail Online



back to Dr Li, the "man":

He had calculated that the simultaneous default risks for the three lowest quality layers were 0.34 percent; 0.49 percent; and 0.88 percent
Actual Figures:
The actual percentage of defaults for the bottom three layers turned out to be 48.73 percent; 56.10 percent; and 66.67 percent. The financial consequences were catastrophic, as we all discovered.
David X. Li - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

After leaving China in 1987 at the behest of the Chinese government to learn more about capitalism from the west
And what happened to Dr. Li? He disappeared. Nobody seems to know where he is
Aww, Dr. Li disappeared! Just as well, whoever has been up to mischief doesn't want everybody else finding out what they are up to. Mr Li is probably dead.

Recipe for Disaster: The Formula That Killed Wall Street
Meet the man whose big idea felled Wall Street - thestar.com