A group of about 100 Dutch businessmen, brokers and bankers forked out 650 guilders ($308) apiece last week to attend a conference featuring Nick Leeson, the trader who single-handedly bankrupted Barings PLC with his derivatives bets in 1995.

Leeson was paid $100,000 for his appearance, the first of a string his lawyers and media handlers have scheduled for him over the next few months. In addition to the speaking engagements, Leeson will soon be endorsing products in advertisements and appearing on various television shows.

"This man is inundated with offers. It's great," crows Ian Monk, director of London public-relations firm Image, whom Leeson has hired as his media adviser. "But you have to bear in mind that he's had a pretty bad time,"Monk quickly adds, his voice solemn.

For Leeson, who was released from a Singapore jail four months ago after serving more than three-and-half years of a six-and-half year sentence, this is how the daunting task of rebuilding his shattered life, and finances, begins.

With his assets frozen and a debt of 100 million ($163.7 million) hanging around his neck, Leeson is between a rock and a hard place As he aptly put it: "I would like to go back into the financial world, but which company is going to be brave enough to employ me? Who will let me trade again?"

Leeson's only option is to try to squeeze as much revenue as possible from his tale, which has already been extensively chronicled in a best-selling book, "Rogue Trader," and a movie by the same title starring heartthrob Ewan McGregor that flopped at the box office. Leeson didn't see a penny from either, according to Monk, because his share went straight to Barings' creditors.

Under an agreement with those same creditors, Leeson will from now onbe allowed to keep 35 per cent of the money his appearances and media and advertising work generate. It is agreed that he can use part of those funds to pay his medical bills - he found out while in prison that he has colon cancer - and invest the rest in pension and mutual funds. The remaining 65 per cent goes to the creditors, who are represented by consulting and accounting firm Ernst & Young. Besides his appearance fees, Leeson receives a monthly allowance of 3,000 out of his frozen assets.

Yet, securing his future financially isn't his main ambition, Leeson says. Asked where he would like to be in 10 years, he answered: "I hope I'm still alive," referring to his cancer, which is in remission. "I would like to live with somebody, have children and be left alone," he added.

Clad in a dark suit and sporting a yellow shirt and blue tie, the balding 32-year-old looked nervous in his first public appearance since his return to Europe, often blushing during the hour-and-a-half question-and-answersession.

"My name is not popular in financial circles. There's a stigma attached to it," Leeson said.

The cloud was enough that few of the attendees were willing to identify themselves.

"Many people in the financial world here are afraid to be associated with Nick Leeson," said Harald Kleverwal, an asset manager with Dutch brokerage house Insinger de Beaufort. "It's a shame, because I don't think he is to blame. He made mistakes and cheated, but he has a lot of guts and seems like an honest man."

Brokers from member-firms of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange made up the bulk of the audience, according to Monk and Harry Mens, the event's organiser, who hosts a Sunday morning business show on a Dutch television station. Leeson is scheduled to appear next on the show.

In a twist, Leeson launched his media comeback in Amsterdam, home of Dutch banking and insurance group ING Groep NV, which bailed out Barings in early 1995 and saved the venerable British bank from oblivion.

(The Asian Wall StreetJournal)