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The collapse
of Barings, and Nick Leeson’s role in it, is one of the most spectacular
debacles in modern financial history
How could
one trader bring down the banking empire that had funded the Napoleonic Wars?
Nick Leeson, the
young gambler who found himself sucked into a terrifying spiral of loss was a
working-class boy who lived high in an upper-class world until his unchecked
gambling caused the downfall of Barings, the banker to the Queen and caused
chaos in the Singaporean money market.
Markets have
always been cruel, but rarely have they been so cruel so swiftly — and on such a
grand scale. Nick talks
candidly about what happened, the lack of accounting safeguards, his capture and
confinement for nine months in a Frankfort prison and being sentenced to 6 ½
years by the Singapore court for forgery and cheating.
He also
talks about being diagnosed with cancer and his fight against it.
In the
aftermath of the AIB trading scandal in New York, and the collapse of Enron and
Worldcom, Nick provides a fascinating insight into the continuing failures of
senior and middle management at large corporations who still fail to protect
shareholders and customers.
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