Main Cast: Ewan McGregor, Anna Friel, Yves Beneyton, Betsy Brantley, Caroline Langrishe
Release Year: 1998
Country: UK
Run Time: 105 minutes
Plot
Based on the tell-all autobiography by Nick Leeson, Rogue Trader tells the true story of how one man managed to bring down England's best respected merchant bank. Ewan McGregor plays Leeson, an ambitious young man from North London who is hired by the Barings Brothers Bank and sent to Indonesia to help untangle some problems with bearer bonds. Leeson does well enough to earn a transfer to Singapore, where he's put in charge of Barings' staff at the Singapore International Money Exchange. The Asian economy is booming and a variety of new financial strategies are changing the shape of the marketplace; while his superiors in London are a bit baffled by the range of possibilities, Leeson takes to the work like a duck to water, and he's soon trusted to do as he pleases. This eventually proves to be his downfall; without a separate team watching the accounts in the back office, Leeson is soon juggling figures to cover up for certain mistakes and gambling on the market with the bank's funds, not just their clients'. In 1995, Leeson's schemes finally collaped, leaving Barings bankrupt; Nick and his wife (another Barings employee) tried to flee the country to avoid arrest. Leeson was eventually sentenced to six-and-a-half years in a Singapore prison for his financial misdeeds; he was released after four years and four months, a week before Rogue Trader opened in British theaters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Nigel Lindsay - Ron Baker; Tim McInnerny - Tony Hawes; Irene Ng - Bonnie Lee; Lee Ross - Danny Argyropoulos; Simon Shepherd - Peter Norris; John Standing - Peter Baring; Pip Torrens - Simon Jones; Tom Wu - George Seow; Daniel York - Henry Tan
Credit
Christina Moore - Supervising Art Director, Celestia Fox - Casting, Rachael Fleming - Costume Designer, Max Keene - First Assistant Director, James Dearden - Director, Catherine Creed - Editor, David Frost - Executive Producer, Pippa Cross - Executive Producer, Chris J. Ball - Executive Producer, William Tyrer - Executive Producer, Claire Chapman - Executive Producer, Alan J. Wands - Line Producer, Richard Hartley - Composer (Music Score), Alan Macdonald - Production Designer, Jean-François Robin - Cinematographer, James Dearden - Producer, Paul Raphael - Producer, Janette Day - Producer, Jim Greenhorn - Sound/Sound Designer, James Dearden - Screenwriter, Iain Johnstone - Grip, Edward Whitley - Book Author, Nicholas Leeson - Book Author
Rogue Trader tells the true story of Nick Leeson, an employee of Barings Bank who after a successful spell working for the firm's office in Indonesia is sent to Singapore as General Manager of the Trading Floor on the SIMEX exchange. The movie follows Leeson's rise as he soon becomes one of Barings' key traders. However, everything isn't as it appears - through the 88888 error account, Nick is hiding huge losses as he gambles away Baring's money with little more than the bat of an eyelid from the powers-that-be back in London.
Eventually the losses mount up to well over £800 million and Nick, along with his wife Lisa, decide to leave Singapore and escape to Malaysia. Nick doesn't realise the severity of his losses until he reads in the newspaper that Barings has gone bankrupt. They then decide to return to London but Nick is arrested en route in Frankfurt. Nick is extradited to Singapore where he is sentenced to six and a half years in jail (but stays in jail for four years, because he was diagnosed with colon cancer). The film is based on Leeson's real life book, Rogue Trader.
