SocGen rogue trader ignites bidding war for Leeson

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The trader accused of costing French bank Societe Generale $7.2 billion may yet carve out a new career for himself, judging by Thursday's bidding war for interviews with Nick Leeson, who brought down Britain's Barings.

Leeson's British-based agent Neil Martin said the former rogue trader, who spent three-and-a-half years in a Singaporean jail following the collapse of Barings in the 1990s, would give a limited number of interviews to the highest bidders.

Martin said two major broadcasters were looking to interview him with a newspaper hoping to land an "exclusive" as well.

"It is more of a disruption fee to enable him to move his diary around," Martin told Reuters as he fielded calls from the world's media anxious to hear Leeson's views after SocGen reported a fraud by one of its traders.

He declined to say how much Leeson would get for any interviews but said the former derivatives trader currently charges 5,000 to 6,000 pounds ($9,792 to $11,750) for appearing as an after-dinner speaker.

"Initially, when he came out of prison no one would touch him with a barge pole," Martin said. "People want to hear the story and companies want learn from his mistakes."

Martin said Leeson was not "capitalizing on his infamy".

"He has done quite a lot of work with hedge funds," he said. "It is not him going in and exploiting his situation."

Leeson's own Web site says he has been able to "capitalize on his experiences" and that he received a "substantial fee" for the newspaper serialization of his book "Rogue Trader".

The book was also made into a 1999 movie in which Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor played Leeson, who cost Barings, bankers to Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, $1.4 billion.

English-born Leeson has since written a self-help book, "Back from the Brink, Coping with Stress".

Leeson told Irish public radio in October that liquidators for Barings had an injunction allowing them to seek the return of 100 million pounds from him but said that in practice it was little more than a bargaining tool he could largely ignore.

"They are not pursuing me," he said in the interview. "I did not steal any money -- that was never in question."

The liquidators were not immediately available for comment. Leeson said he had so far paid less than 500,000 pounds back and was liable only to pay them a share of his earnings from "anything related to Barings".

Having carved out a new life for himself in the west of Ireland, Leeson became chief executive of Galway United Football Club last year where he had been general manager since 2005.

It has not all been plain sailing, however. During his time in what he has described as a "gang-ridden" jail, Leeson's wife left him and he was diagnosed with cancer of the colon. He has since recovered from the illness and remarried.

(Editing by Quentin Bryar)