Financial Felons: Nick Leeson

This post is part of a feature in which we wonder whatever happened to some notorious financial felons. See all 17.

Who better understands the roots of the current financial crisis than the man who single-handedly brought down Barings Bank back in 1995? Back then, Nicholas Leeson lost $1.4 billion in unauthorized trading and rendered Britain's oldest bank insolvent. It was eventually sold for one pound to ING, a Dutch Bank.

Leeson now lives in Ireland with his family and is CEO of Irish football club Galway United. Although he is available for speaking engagements, he's been in relative obscurity until recently when he has re-emerged to comment on today's financial crisis.

He's been pretty prescient. In a column in the U.K.'s Independent back in January, he wrote that the financial crisis would only get worse, mainly because regulators, central banks, and the investment bankers did not understand the potential market impact of the financial instruments in play.

Leeson correctly predicted both a "crisis of confidence" in leadership and that the financial crisis would "get a lot worse before it starts to get any better." Hey Nick, have we reached bottom yet?

Compared to today's bumbling financiers who threaten to bring down the entire global financial system with their ill-timed bets, Leeson seems "like a cheap date and more fun," opines one Scottish news site. Even more to his credit, that site points out, Leeson actually went to prison, serving four years in a Singapore prison.

Will any of today's financial ne'er-do-wells do time?