Rogue Trader (1999) -

Because he was in charge of both the trading floor and the back-office reporting (the "settlements"), he was effectively his own boss, allowing him to cook the books and make it look like he was making millions while he was actually drowning. The Kobe Earthquake

By 1995, Leeson’s secret losses were staggering. He placed a massive bet on the index, wagering that the Japanese market would remain stable overnight.

On February 23, 1995, Leeson left a note on his desk saying and fled the country. He left behind a $1.4 billion loss —more than double the bank's entire available capital. Rogue Trader (1999)

Leeson was eventually caught in Germany and sentenced to six and a half years in a Singaporean prison. The 1999 film, starring , captures that claustrophobic spiral of a man who wasn't necessarily a criminal mastermind, but a gambler who simply didn't know when to fold.

Then, the unthinkable happened: the struck Kobe. The Japanese markets plummeted, and Leeson’s positions turned into a black hole. He tried to "trade his way out" by buying more, but the hole only deepened. The Collapse Because he was in charge of both the

Barings Bank, which had survived the Napoleonic Wars and financed the Louisiana Purchase, was declared insolvent and sold to the Dutch bank ING for the symbolic price of . The Aftermath

The true story of is a masterclass in how a "can-do" attitude can accidentally demolish a 233-year-old institution. On February 23, 1995, Leeson left a note

The trouble started with a single mistake. A junior clerk made a trade error, and rather than reporting it, Leeson hid the loss in a dormant account: . To cover that loss, he made bigger, riskier bets. When those failed, he doubled down again.