Remember Nick Leeson, the destroyer of the ancient Barings Bank? His story was even made into an HBO film starring Ewan McGregor called “Rogue Trader.”

Now comes China’s version of Nick Leeson:

China on Thursday acknowledged that a since-detained government trader placed a series of disastrous bets on the price of copper in London this summer, leaving the state to cover hundreds of millions of dollars in losses, according to a report in official Chinese media.

As rumors of the scandal filtered out this month, China first denied the existence of the trader, and then branded him a rogue operator. Thursday’s report in the official China Daily newspaper suggests that the Communist Party-led government has resolved to take responsibility for a scandal that has roiled commodity markets while renewing fundamental questions about the transparency of the fast-growing economy.

This seems to be the standard PRC PR/damage control operating procedure: first deny, then grudgingly admit, but shift blame.

Anyhow, more on the Chinese Nick Leeson:

But where Leeson was a highflying renegade, Liu Qibing, 36, a career Communist Party functionary, seems an unlikely maverick capitalist. Since graduating from Wuhan University in his native province of Hubei in 1990, he has worked at the National Control Centre, an institution that dates back to China’s central planning days, according to a report in the China Securities Journal.

Well, Barings was an old, prestigious institution too (as the only non-Jewish bank in England, it was the one to which many anti-Semitic British nobles flocked to conduct financial affairs).

Liu soon amassed a reputation as a savvy navigator of the markets. According to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, he netted the state more than $300 million by betting on a sharp appreciation in the price of copper between 2002 and 2004, correctly assuming that the country’s construction boom would translate into escalating demand.

But this year, he got it wrong, underscoring the difficulties of forecasting in an economy that is increasingly capitalist yet still subject to the often secret dictates of its Communist Party leaders.

I actually think that the parallels are striking. Both Barings and NCC were “old school” places whose leaders probably did not and could not understand what their respective rogue traders were doing. Both organizations were probably excited and enthused by the young mavericks who seemed to generate money as if by magic, using new tools and technology.

As the saying goes, if it’s too good to be true…

Caveat emptor and welcome to capitalism, comrades!