£830,000,000 – Nick Leeson and the Fall of the House of Barings
£830,000,000 – Nick Leeson and the Fall of the House of Barings | |
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Also known as | Inside Story Special: £830,000,000 – Nick Leeson and the Fall of the House of Barings |
Directed by | Adam Curtis |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Adam Curtis |
Cinematography | Michael Eley |
Editor | Olivia Lichtenstein |
Running time | 55 mins |
Production company | BBC |
Original release | |
Network | BBC One |
Release | 12 June 1996[1] |
Inside Story Special: £830,000,000 – Nick Leeson and the Fall of the House of Barings, sometimes referred to as 25 Million Pounds, is a 1996 British television documentary by filmmaker
Summary
The film describes Barings as one of the oldest and most prestigious
The documentary explores the culture of Barings and of the financial markets during the 1990s, and how Nick Leeson was able to cause another huge loss of money to the bank, this time bankrupting the company. He did this by claiming fictitious profits on the
Leeson, the film suggests, had an "amazing ability to manipulate and deceive those around him" but also points out that Barings "willingly entered into a dream he wove, lured by the prospect of vast sums of money". Leeson, interviewed in jail, argues that he was only able to perpetrate such a massive fraud because many of the senior executives at Barings had no idea how the modern system of finance, which emerged in the 1980s, really worked.
The film details the fates of many of the people who were involved in the scandal, including Peter Baring who "has promised never to work in the City of London again." Hong Kong merchant banker Steven Clarke observes the class-based humour of the downfall of Barings: "For a boy from Watford to bring a grand firm down, I mean it was a social insult as well. It wasn't even one of their own kind."
References
- ^ BBC Genome. 12 June 1996.