What is Nick Leeson's Net Worth and Salary?
Nick Leeson is a former derivatives trader and convicted felon who has a net worth of $4 million. Nick Leeson's fraudulent trades resulted in the 1995 collapse of Barings Bank in London. Convicted in a Singapore court, he ended up serving over four years in Changi Prison. After his release, Leeson held senior management roles with the Irish association football club Galway United, and began advising companies on matters of risk and corporate responsibility.
At his peak working for Barings in the early 1990s, Nick was making over $1 million per year in salary and bonus. In the immediate aftermath of his conviction, Nick was ordered personally liable for £100 million. When he was subject to that liability, his income had a cap and anything he earned above the cab went to pay down the judgment. His earnings from the book "Rogue Trader" and the eventual movie were both siphoned to pay down the judgment. The statute of limitations on the liability eventually passed, at which point Nick was free to keep 100% of his post-tax income. Today the majority of his income is derived from giving paid speeches. He reportedly charges $10-20,000 per speech.
Early Life and Education
Nick Leeson was born on February 25, 1967 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England on a council estate to working-class parents. He attended Parmiter's School in nearby Garston.
Career Beginnings
Leeson began his career working as a clerk at the Lombard Street branch of the Coutts private bank. In 1987, he moved to Morgan Stanley's futures and options back office, where he cleared and settled listed derivatives transactions.
Barings Bank
In 1989, Leeson joined London's Barings Bank, one of the oldest merchant banks in England. The next year, he was transferred to Barings' office in Jakarta, Indonesia. Back in London in 1991, Leeson investigated a case of fraud involving a Barings employee who had used a client's account to trade on a proprietary basis. He went on to become the general manager of Barings' newly opened futures and options office in Singapore in 1992, although not before committing fraud of his own when he lied on his application. Leeson would continue his chicanery in Singapore. Starting in 1992, he made unauthorized speculative trades that created huge profits for Barings, and at the same time used one of Barings' error accounts to hide his and his associates' bad trades and mounting losses. At one point, Leeson concealed the fact that he had failed to reconcile a discrepancy of 500 contracts, costing Barings $1.7 million. Although he later claimed that he never used the error account for personal gain, investigators discovered around $35 million in his various bank accounts.
By the end of 1994, losses in Leeson's error account at Barings had swelled to £208 million. This was caused by his doubling strategy, in which he would double the amount he lost after each loss with the hopes of recouping the amount. As his losses piled up, Leeson began fabricating cover stories to explain why he needed more cash from London. All of his proverbial cards came crashing down in early 1995 when he placed a short straddle in the Singapore and Tokyo stock exchanges, betting that the Japanese stock market would not experience any significant changes overnight. To his misfortune, the Great Hanshin Earthquake struck Japan the very next morning, cratering Asian markets and Leeson's trading positions. He unsuccessfully tried to recoup his losses through a series of risky trades before fleeing Singapore. Leeson's losses eventually ballooned to £827 million, twice the available trading capital of Barings. Following a failed bailout attempt, Barings was declared insolvent at the end of February 1995.
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Conviction and Incarceration
After fleeing Singapore, Leeson made stops in Malaysia, Thailand, and finally Germany, where he was arrested in Frankfurt and extradited to Singapore. He ended up pleading guilty to two counts of "deceiving the bank's auditors and of cheating the Singapore exchange." Leeson was convicted by District Judge Richard Magnus and sentenced to six-and-a-half years in Singapore's Changi Prison. Due to good behavior, he was ultimately released in the summer of 1999 after four years and four months behind bars. Leeson had also had colon cancer, which he survived.
Post-prison Career
Following his release from prison, Leeson completed a degree in psychology at Middlesex University. He also began doing speaking engagements and advising companies on matters of risk and corporate responsibility. In 2005, Leeson became the commercial manager of the Irish association football club Galway United, and soon became its general manager. By 2007, he had become the club's CEO. Leeson left Galway United in early 2011 amid financial difficulties experienced by the club. Later, in 2023, he became a private investigator of financial misconduct cases for the corporate intelligence firm Red Mist Market Enforcement Unit.
Books
Leeson published his first book, the autobiography "Rogue Trader," in 1996. A chronicle of his fraudulent acts that bankrupted Barings Bank, the book was adapted into a film of the same name in 1999. Ewan McGregor portrayed Leeson in the film. Leeson published another book, "Back from the Brink: Coping with Stress," in 2005. Continuing where "Rogue Trader" left off, it features in-depth conversations with psychologist and educator Ivan Tyrrell.
Personal Life
Leeson married his first wife, Lisa Sims, in 1992. They had first met in Jakarta, where they were both working for Barings. The couple divorced in 1997 following Leeson's arrest. In 2003, four years after Leeson was released from prison, he wed Leona Tormay.
