2.  Born on Feb. 25, 1967 in Watford, England  After finishing school in 1985, he got a job as a clerk with an exclusive private bank called Coutts  He later moved to Morgan Stanley in 1987 for two years then eventually ended up with Barings Bank in 1989

3.  In 1992, he was appointed the general manager of the Singapore International Monetary Exchange (SIMEX)  He was sent to Singapore after he was denied a broker’s license in the U.K. because of fraud on his application  From 1992, Leeson made unauthorized speculative trades that at first made large profits for Barings Banks; £10 million which accounted for 10% of Barings' annual income. He earned a bonus of £130,000 on his salary of £50,000 for that year

4.  His luck went sour when he used one of Barings’ error accounts (used to correct mistakes made in trading) to hide his losses  Leeson used this account to cover further bad trades. He insists that he never used the account for his own gain, but in 1996 the New York Times quoted "British press reports" as claiming that investigators had located approximately $35 million in various bank accounts tied to him

5.  By the end of 1992, the account's losses exceeded £2 million, which increased to £208 million by the end of 1994  Jan. 16, 1995 Leeson placed a “short straddle” in the Singapore and Tokyo stock exchanges, betting that the Japanese stock market would not move significantly overnight. However, the Kobe earthquake hit early in the morning, sending Asian markets and Leeson's trading positions, into a tailspin.

6.  After fleeing to Malaysia, Thailand, and Germany, Leeson was arrested and extradited back to Singapore on March 2, 1995  He pleaded guilty to 2 counts of "deceiving the bank's auditors and of cheating the Singapore exchange", including forging documents. Sentenced to 6 ½ years, he was released from prison in 1999, because he was diagnosed colon cancer, which he survived

7.  While in prison, in 1996, Leeson published an autobiography, Rogue Trader, detailing his actions  He married an Irish beautician, Leona Tormay, in 2003 and they now live in Barna, in the west of Ireland  He is now the CEO of the Galway United Football Club

8.  http://www.nickleeson.com/biography/i ndex.html http://www.nickleeson.com/biography/i ndex.html  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leeson http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Leeson  http://www.riskglossary.com/link/barings _debacle.htm http://www.riskglossary.com/link/barings _debacle.htm