NICK Leeson, the man who brought down British merchant bank, Barings, is thought to control £23 million sterling in secret accounts in Germany.

The money can only be released with his signature or that of his nominated representatives, according to investigators tracking the bank's missing millions.

They have discovered six bank accounts in three German cities, four ultimately controlled by an Indonesian holding company, and the other two in Leeson's own name, and Leeson is understood to be a signatory of all six, the Sunday Times reported yesterday.

The accounts, opened in April 1994, are listed in a briefing document prepared for asset hunters convinced he siphoned off millions in the months before the Barings' crash a year ago, it said.

According to the document, a total of £17.8 million was held in four accounts in Frankfurt and Munich and £780,000 in two accounts in Berlin. Another £5.8 million was transferred from the accounts in Frankfurt and Munich to other accounts in Germany last June.

Among the withdrawals from the Berlin accounts was a sum of £650,000 paid to lawyers unconnected with Mr Leeson's attempts to fight his extradition to Singapore. There was also a withdrawal of £33,000 to pay a hotel bill and another payment of £1.7 million to an unknown beneficiary.

Just over a year ago Leeson ran up debts of £850 million while trading on the Singapore stock market, bringing down Britain's oldest merchant bank. He is serving six and a half years in Singapore after pleading guilty to charges of fraud and forgery in November.

The trader had access to three bank accounts in Berlin, two in Frankfurt and one in Munich, according to the investigation.

They were believed to have been opened by German companies which, in turn, were owned by a tier of three offshore Indonesian firms. These parent companies were formed in July 1994, the paper said. Five of the six bank accounts had a close confidant of Leeson as a co signatory.

The investigators have known about the existence of the accounts since last Summer. However, they have been reluctant to approach the Germany authorities and seek to have them frozen. Under the German legal system the manner in which the details of the accounts were obtained might make evidence about them inadmissible in any legal action.

The investigators have subsequently concentrated on trying to identify the co signatories on the account and probe the Indonesian connections.

Leeson worked in the Barings office in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 1990 before being transferred to Singapore. It was in Jakarta that Mr Leeson met his wife Lisa, an employee of Barings. Leeson also travelled to Frankfurt to help expand Barings' German business the following year. Mr Leeson maintained contacts amongst the British community in Frankfurt, the paper said.

The investigators are also concentrating on connections between the accounts, an unnamed financier and a chain of investment vehicles registered in the Caribbean.

Sources in Barings dismissed the idea that the accounts could have been legitimately established by Barings as trading accounts over which Leeson has power of attorney.