Leeson `cashed in with tip-offs to rival traders'

STEVE BOGGAN

Chief Reporter

Singaporean investigators are examining evidence that suggests Nick Leeson may have made millions of pounds by tipping off rivals about his rogue deals.

Sources in the Far East said Leeson has been questioned in prison over "several leads" indicating that he made a killing on his losses by advising other brokers to take opposite trading positions from his own. They have already identified one New York trader who made $700,000 on just one deal.

The investigators said yesterday that they were "sceptically curious" about a report that Leeson had salted away pounds 23m in six German bank accounts before Barings collapsed with pounds 850m losses. But they said they had never ruled out the possibility he benefited from the bank's collapse.

Leeson's family and his lawyer rejected The Sunday Times report which said a firm of US "asset hunters" had traced six bank accounts in Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich to which Leeson was a signatory. However, Ernst & Young, Barings' administrators, and Price Waterhouse, the liquidators in Singapore, said they were keeping an open mind.

According to the newspaper, the asset hunters produced a report, "Project Kestrel", which said Leeson was a sole signatory on one of the accounts and that two were in his name. It alleged they were set up by a number of German companies linked to Indonesian interests. But it fails to name the asset hunters, the companies, any co-signatories or the banks.

One Singaporean source said: "There have been many reports like this from American bounty hunters claiming to know where the Leeson missing millions are. So far, we have been tipped off about secret assets in Malaysia, South Africa and Zurich but when we check, there is nothing there."

"However, we have not ruled out the possibility he did gain from the losses by informing other traders to take opposite positions."

If Leeson did make money from linking up with an opposing trader, the Singaporeans said they would be surprised if he then deposited it in German banks using his own name.