Who remembers Doug Skolnick? He was once an important figure at Bankers Trust, heading up securities lending and money market funds – a tough job, since it entailed reporting into Mary Cirillo – when Deutsche Bank acquired the organisation.
And where is he now? Languishing in a Brazilian jail, it seems, having become the second American citizen to be arrested after making an obscene gesture while being fingerprinted and photographed at a Brazilian airport as part of the entry requirements for US citizens.
Skolnick, now retired to New Jersey, raised his middle finger while going through the new entry requirement at the international airport in Foz de Iguacu, a southeastern resort town famous for its massive waterfalls. He was arrested for showing contempt to to the authorities, the same crime that saw American Airlines pilot Dale Robin Hersh collect a Real 36,000 ($12,750) fine on 14 January after lifting his middle finger while entering Brazil. The airline paid the fine, and Hersh was sent back to the United States.
Skolnick, 55, “did it the same way as the American pilot,” says a Federal Police spokesman in Brazil. It is unclear whether he will be fine and deported or allowed to rejoin a tour group of about 80 mostly retired Americans. Skolnick’s wife has accompanied the rest of the party to their hotel.
Brazil imposed the new rules that Americans be fingerprinted and photographed at entry points in response the similar rules in the United States for citizens of Brazil and other countries whose citizens need visas to enter.