In Singapore 25 years ago, I reported on a rogue trader called Nick Leeson, who smashed a venerable British bank with double-or-quits bets on financial markets. Reporters searched high and low for him. My newspaper was in the truth business, so it demanded stories based on facts. But one day, I talked to a reporter from a different kind of paper who was savoring the yarn he’d send to Fleet Street that evening.
“I think Leeson probably sneaked away on a yacht and is on his way to Australia,” he said, “I’ll go with the yacht theory.” And that’s what appeared on his front page in London the next day. It was pure invention, not even an educated guess. As if to give the lie, Leeson returned from a Thai beach resort soon afterward to face the music and a stint in Changi Prison.
