UK: LISA LEESON WIFE OF DISGRACED BARINGS BANK TRADER LEESON ATTENDS PRESS CONFERENCE WITH LAWYER.

Record ID: 294834

  • Title: UK: LISA LEESON WIFE OF DISGRACED BARINGS BANK TRADER LEESON ATTENDS PRESS CONFERENCE WITH LAWYER.
  • Date: 12th September 1995
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 12, 1995) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. TRACK LISA LEESON, WIFE OF BARINGS TRADER NICK LEESON, AND LAWYER STEPHEN POLLARD WALKING ALONG CORRIDOR TO NEWS CONFERENCE 0.14 2. GV/SV NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (2 SHOTS) 0.24 3. SV LISA LEESON SAYING NICK LEESON IS RELIEVED TO HAVE GOT A LOT OF THINGS OFF HIS CHEST (IN TV INTERVIEW)/ DENYING THAT THEY ARE LOOKING FOR "SOFT OPTION" IN SEEKING TRIAL IN BRITAIN (ENGLISH) 1.11 4. SV LISA LEESON AND LAWYER LEAVING ROOM 1.20 SEQ.3: TRANSCRIPT; LEESON:" ON THURSDAY HE WAS OK (NICK LEESON). I THINK HE WAS RELIEVED TO HAVE GOT A LOT OF THINGS OFF HIS CHEST (IN TV INTERVIEW) BECAUSE HE WANTED TO SAY QUITE A BIT FOR 6 MONTHS, HE REALLY WANTED TO COME WHEN HE COULD PUT HIS POINT FORWARD BUT YES HE SEEMED OK, HE SEEMED ALRIGHT. (REPORTER SUGGESTS CAMPAIGN IS FOR SOFT OPTION OF A BRITISH PRISON) TO WHICH LEESON SAYS: "A SOFT OPTION ? I DON'T THINK ANY PRISON IS A SOFT OPTION. I WOULDN'T LIKE TO BE IN PRISON AND I'M SURE NO ONE HERE WOULD WANT TO SO HOW CAN PRISON BE A SOFT OPTION." Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 27th September 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVADGSKT4BYH20MZ3DVWACXVZLK6
  • Story Text: The wife and the lawyer of Nick Leeson, the young trader who caused the collapse of Barings Bank, renewed their fight on Tuesday (September 12) to get him extradited to Britain, rather than to his last home base in Singapore.

    But legal sources said that, despite Leeson's recent revelations to British fraud investigators, the authorities now holding him in custody in Germany were likely to decide to send him back to face charges in Singapore.

    His wife, Lisa Leeson, told a news conference he should be granted his request to face potential charges in Britain -- because he is British and would be closer to his family.

    "Nick's a British citizen. Barings was a British bank. It was British investors' money that was lost. So why not British justice?" she said a day after a BBC interview with her husband from his German prison was shown on British television.

    Lisa Leeson said her husband had "got a lot off his chest," referring to the BBC interview and added that he did not see extradition to Britain as a "soft option." His lawyer said Leeson had just told British investigators he committed "serious criminal offences of false accounting and obtaining property by deception" in Britain, which carry maximum sentences of seven and 10 years in prison respectively.

    The lawyer said Britain now had stronger grounds than Singapore for trying to extradite Leeson, as a result of evidence he gave in 5-1/2 days of questioning by investigators from Britain's Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

    Singapore, where Leeson worked when his unauthorised trading crushed Barings in February under 860 million pounds (1.3 billion United States dollars) in losses, says it wants to try him on 12 charges of fraud, forgery and illegal transfer of funds.

    Leeson was arrested in Germany on March 2 after he and his wife arrived on a flight from Southeast Asia.


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