Rogue Trader Returns Home

The high-flying young trader who engineered huge, unauthorized investments in 1995, came back to Britain Sunday, after about four years in a Singapore prison. CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth reports from London.

Nick Leeson's unauthorized futures trades lost $1.38 billion and brought down Barings Bank. He returned home ill, divorced, unemployed and under court order to account for every penny he spends.

In a statement he read to reporters at London's Heathrow Airport, Leeson, 32, said for the first time in public that he was sorry.

"I want to state clearly here that I know I did wrong. I'm not proud of my activities as a trader with Barings Bank in Singapore. I was foolish. And I very much regret what happened."

Barings was the bank that financed the British Empire. Even the queen kept money there. When the bank broke, Leeson ran. He was captured in Germany, then sent back to Asia for trial and prison. While in prison he wrote a book that's become a movie.

Leeson worked in the Singapore office of Britain's oldest commercial bank in the heady days of the 1990s Asian financial boom. Convicted of fraudulently hiding the losses, he was sentenced to 6 1/2 years but was freed Saturday, an early release for good behavior.

Leeson was diagnosed with colon cancer while in Tanah Merah prison and needs continued treatment after the surgery and chemotherapy he had in Singapore.

"I have done my time. I have taken my punishment, and now I want to get on with the job of rebuilding my life," Leeson told reporters.

Leeson was divorced by his wife, Lisa, who had stood by him through the trial and got a job as an airline attendant so she could fly to visit him. But she was disillusioned by revelations in his 1997 autobiography, Rogue Trader." She married another banker.

Leeson told reporters he had found out who his true friends were and "received a lot of kindness from people I do not know. One man in America sent me books every month for the entire time I was in Tanah Merah."

A High Court order froze Leeson's assets at the request of the liquidators of the former Barings group. He can spend up to $7,900 per month for living costs, legal fees and health care but must give the liquidators two days' advance notice in writing of where the cash has come from and exactly how it is being spent.

Leeson's lawyer, Stephan Pollard, dismissed reports that Leeson had stashed away $3 million as "complete and utter nonsense."

Unconfirmed reports in London newspapers said Leeson had a $150,000 deal for an exclusive interview with a British tabloid. The High Court judgment prevents him from profiting from the sale of his story.

Pollard said Leeson would pay his expenses out of "money that he has," but did not specify where he got it.

It's possible Leeson may be able to regain his trading license, since his conviction was in Singapore, not England.