LEESON RUMORS ARE FLYING

Was rogue trader Nicholas Leeson's wife in a position, through her "back office" job, to exercise authority over the stock market bets by her husband that felled Baring Bros. & Co.? Did the Singapore-based trader also have an accomplice working in the bank's London headquarters? And what about a $70 to $700 million credit line that Baring supposedly extended to the young trader to fuel his risky gamble? TIME senior writer John Greenwald says such rumors are inevitable with reporters around the world chasing this story. He expects many of them will be proven untrue. "Right now, I think it's all sort of gas and hot air," says Greenwald. British regulators, meanwhile, have launched an investigation into how much Baring managers knew about the trades done by Leeson, who fled his home with his wife just before the bank went into bankruptcy last weekend. Leeson remains at large.