The column has chronicled Martin Lukes’ ups and downs in his career at a-b glöbâl, a multinational based in Atlanta whose business (or even market sector) has never been made clear. Initially a middle manager of the UK subsidiary, he eventually became its Chairman before finally becoming CEO of the multinational in late 2007.

Martin Lukes was arrested for insider trading on 17 December 2007, very soon after becoming CEO. No further columns were published for a few weeks, with an “out of office” auto reply in the FT each Thursday.

On 23 January 2008 it was reported that he was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison. A number of spoof articles were published reporting this as if it were fact. The column’s website reported on this date that the column ran from 1999 to December 2007, implying that the column has now ended. However, the paper’s editorial on 24 January called for the US authorities to allow Lukes’ access to his BlackBerry while in prison, provided he “keeps it authentic”.

The Financial Times carried exclusive, extensive coverage of Lukes’ conviction on 24 January 2008, including direct editorial comment responding forthrightly to the reader suggestion that the paper should have publicly supported Lukes’ plight, and accounts of the courtroom antics (and wardrobe) of Lukes’ new wife Sherril.

On 3 November 2009, the FT posted a video announcing that Martin Lukes would be starting a blog from jail. The blog purports to be written by his wife Sherril, based on letters from Martin at FCI Coleman. Lukes reports having become a born-again Christian and having developed two new courses for his fellow inmates – Pros for the Cons™, which teaches that all negatives can be made positive, and Incarimation Now!™, which is part incarceration, part imagination, but better than both.