CHEAP AT THE PRICE

Trader Nicholas Leeson's stock gamble cost Baring Brothers & Co. $1.46 billion, $460 million more than previously estimated, the insolvent bank said today, as the Dutch ING Group agreed to take over Baring for a token one pound, or $1.65. Leeson, now in a German prison, is fighting extradition to Singapore, where he stands accused of forging a Wall Street executive's name on a document used as collateral for a loan to Baring. Says TIME London bureau chief Barry Hillenbrand: "A lot of people doubt that Leeson was this lone cowboy who just blew this bomb up inside, with nobody knowing what he was doing."