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The Man Who Broke the Bank

Barings Bank used to be one of the oldest and most respected British investment banks. It had branches all over the world and many famous customers including the British (1 occupy magnitude luxuries occur maintain obvious monarch outcome , Queen Elizabeth. But last year in February there was bad news at the Singapore branch. In fact, it looked like Barings was in serious trouble. At first the (2 occupy magnitude luxuries occur maintain obvious monarch outcome of the problem was not clear. Nobody knew for sure how many bad investments had been made or how much money was involved, but it soon became (3 occupy magnitude luxuries occur maintain obvious monarch outcome that the losses were over $1.3 billion dollars, and so large that the 232-year-old bank was forced to close with great losses to its customers.
How could such a disaster (4 occupy magnitude luxuries occur maintain obvious monarch outcome ? How was it possible for such a respected and trusted institution to have made such mistakes? The top management of Barings promised a thorough investigation and they soon found out who was responsible: a young trader called Nick Leeson.
Here is his story: Leeson had done very well at Barings and had received huge bonuses and rapid promotions for his excellent performance. He came from a very ordinary working-class English family, and he and his wife enjoyed their new life and the (5 occupy magnitude luxuries occur maintain obvious monarch outcome that came with wealth and success in Singapore. They ate at the finest restaurants and played tennis at the best club. Leeson became determined to (6 occupy magnitude luxuries occur maintain obvious monarch outcome his record of success at the bank.
His method was simple. He made very large, very risky investments for Barings in the hopes that there would be enormous profits. If there were losses, he entered them in a secret account, and hoped to pay off the growing debt with profits from the next investment success. But the debts increased so fast that Leeson lost control. By the time the fraud was discovered, it was too late to save the bank.
As we know, Barings went bankrupt, but what was the (7 occupy magnitude luxuries occur maintain obvious monarch outcome for Nick Leeson? He has been given a prison sentence of just six and a half years for his crime, and he does not seem to be very sorry about what he did. How does he (8 occupy magnitude luxuries occur maintain obvious monarch outcome his time in prison? It looks like he has been writing. He has just published a book called Rogue Trader--How I Brought Down Barings Bank and Shook the Financial World. Buy it and read it if you like, but remember: Your purchase is helping to pay the legal bills of a thief.

--from the Toronto Globe & Mail, March 1996