It was a low point in the history of the CBOT when the scumbag Darrell Zimmerman blew up a clearing firm in 1992 with nothing more than a bad check in his account while he tried to muscle the bond contract. It's almost defies belief that a person like him was allowed to stick around the trading floor but in actuality the floor was filled with people like him. One thing I've learned is to never deal with a desperado and it's clear in the article he went for it because he had nothing to lose. The article is pretty long and might be worth printing out to read but it's certainly worth reading.
The Chicago Reader published the following article on October 3, 1996:
Busted
A rogue trader's path from the pits to prison in 25 steps
The author is Ted C. Fishman who was a former floor trader and author of the recent release China Inc.