For a brief period Nick Leeson was a
pin-up idol for modern
anarchists.
In
1995 Nick Leeson caused the previously unbesmirched
Barings Bank to go into receivership. Trading out of
Singapore, Leeson used a complex series of
deceptions to hide losses he had made. As the losses became progressively worse, his deceptions became bolder, until he was eventually discovered.
At the time, all sorts of
peculiar motivations were ascribed to Nick. One of the most intriguing I came across was that he was acting on behalf and an
anti-capitalist anarchic movement based in the U.S. The theory was that Nick had intentionally destabilised Barings bank in order to demonstrate the pointlessness of greed.