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Putting together a resume must be a tricky business for Nick Leeson. One obvious puzzler: where do you stick the part about bankrupting the oldest merchant bank in the United Kingdom? In a recent roundtable discussion, executive placement executives seemed to come down on the side of 'Other Skills.’

Clearly, Nick Leeson’s primary skill is survival. Today, this infamous rogue trader and ex-con is hot stuff on the after-dinner speaking and conference circuit. Mostly, Leeson speaks at risk management, IT and financial services events, talking primarily about the importance of maintaining strict internal controls over computer systems.

“Rogue trading is probably a daily occurrence amongst the financial markets,” Leeson says. “Not enough focus goes on those risk management areas, those compliance areas, those settlement areas, that can ultimately save them money."

He should know. As you may recall, Leeson ran Baring Bank’s futures trading operation in Singapore in the mid-Nineties. Early on, this son of a poor Watford plasterer was remarkably successful, demonstrating a keen sense of market movements. At one point, Leeson’s trading is said to have accounted for fully 10% of Barings’ entire annual profit. Barings had a rich history. The merchant operation had financed the Louisiana Purchase in 1802 and was the unofficial bank of the royal family. In real estate parlance, that’s what’s known as an anchor tenant.

But in 1994, things started to fall apart. That’s when Leeson discovered that a colleague in Singapore had lost a sizeable sum on bad trades, and was hiding the losses in a bogus account numbered 88888. The irony of this was not lost on Leeson: eight is considered the luckiest of all numbers in Asia.  Researchers say America has no single lucky digit, although they do believe 1 is the loneliest number.

Anyway, Leeson was soon taking larger positions to cover his friend’s and his own losses. Mostly, he took positions in the futures market, betting that Japan’s Nikkei 225 would not drop below 19,000. But in January 2005, an earthquake devastated Kobe, destroying buildings and Shaqs, and sending the Nikkei into a tailspin. Leeson, who had taken unhedged positions, bet more aggressively. The Nikkei, however, did not recover.

Neither did Leeson. Eventually, he was down about $1.3 billion. While that sounds like peanuts when compared to the impressive losses being turned out by today’s sophisticated financial services operators, it was sufficient to wipe out Barings.

Leeson fled, leaving an envelope with a note stating, “I’m sorry.” A check for $1.3 billion was not enclosed.

He went on the lam for three months, hiding out in Kota Kinabalu.  After a massive manhunt, the fugitive Leeson was finally apprehended in Frankfurt and returned to Singapore. He wanted to move his trial to any venue other than Singapore, which us understandable given that city-state’s attitude towards lawbreakers. Indeed, a recent public service campaign there stated: “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time required to recover from a series of vicious canings.”

Authorities in Singapore quickly sentenced Leeson to six years. It was not a nice period of his life. The conditions were said to be deplorable. Leeson slept on a concrete floor. While in prison, he was beaten by gang members. His wife divorced him. He was also diagnosed with colon cancer and underwent surgery.

Since his early release in 1999, things have started to improve for a contrite Leeson. His cancer appears to be in remission. He went back to school and got a degree in psychology. He also published a book about the Barings scandal—Rogue Trader—which was later turned into a movie starring Ewan McGregor (the Trainspotting guy). He has turned his keen analytical mind towards more noble pursuits, including a stint as a professional poker player.

Currently, Leeson is the CEO Galway United, a football club with a long and illustrious history in Irish football.  They’re known as the Maroon Army, a moniker which doesn’t exactly instill fear in opponents.

Leeson also seems to make a fair amount of money by speaking at conferences. His favorite topics: risk management, compliance and governance. He can also shed some light on the joys of colo-rectal surgery as performed in a maximum-security setting.

According to his handlers, Lesson is “one of the world’s most sought-after speakers.”  Well, he was once.

Today, Nick Leeson is often referred to as the “original rogue trader.” That probably goes under 'Awards and Honors.'

Comments (4)

	1. 06-15-2009 16:39
	The ironic thing is there are far more lessons to be learned by listening to Nick Leeson talk about how he evaded the controls at Barings, than by attending any number of vendor presentations on implementing governance or risk management systems. Registered

Mel Duvall

	2. 06-15-2009 20:09
	It's a tricky business to separate the value of the lessons that criminal offenders can teach us from the very human tendency to put speakers and authors on a pedestal as celebrities. It's made even harder by the fact that some of these guys have a personality and can be very charismatic in their presentation. Registered

Frederick B. Kauber

	3. 06-16-2009 10:07
	These guys often have a ton of charisma. It's often how these guys get away with their crimes: they're able to bamboozle people Registered

John Goff

	4. 06-23-2009 18:03
	It may seem crazy, but for some reason, I've always like Nick Leeson. Asolutely, what he did was wrong. He freely admits that.    Think he just got in way over his head. At the same time--and this is just my opinion, mind you--it doesn't appear that senior management at Barings had much of a problem with his high-roller approach when he was making them a ton of money. Registered

John Goff

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