iPhone app iPad app Android phone app Android tablet app More

Rogue Trader Suspect, Kweku Adoboli, Weeps In Court

Kweku

First Posted: 17/09/11 08:16 BST Updated: 17/09/11 08:23 BST   PA

Amazing
 Inspiring
 Funny
 Scary
 Hot
 Crazy
 Important
 Weird

PRESS ASSOCIATION -- A City trader wept in the dock as he appeared in court accused of a £1.3 billion fraud at Swiss banking giant UBS.

With an open-necked white shirt and sky blue sweatshirt, Kweku Adoboli stood accused of fraud and two charges of false accounting, one of which dated back to 2008.

The 31-year-old was remanded in custody to appear again at City of London Magistrates' Court for a committal hearing on September 22.

After the hearing, City watchdogs the Financial Services Authority and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority said they had ordered a "comprehensive, independent investigation" into the events surrounding trading losses at the bank's London operations.

This will see a third party investigate the details of the alleged unauthorised trading activity and why the activities remained undetected.

It will also assess the overall strength of UBS's controls to prevent fraud.

FOLLOW HUFFPOST UK

PRESS ASSOCIATION -- A City trader wept in the dock as he appeared in court accused of a £1.3 billion fraud at Swiss banking giant UBS. With an open-necked white shirt and sky blue sweatshirt, Kwe...
PRESS ASSOCIATION -- A City trader wept in the dock as he appeared in court accused of a £1.3 billion fraud at Swiss banking giant UBS. With an open-necked white shirt and sky blue sweatshirt, Kwe...
Related News On Huffington Post:
 

Read more from Huffington Post bloggers:
Jared Dillian

Jared Dillian: I'm A Quitter

I was an ETF trader at Lehman Brothers, so I had the same job as Kweku Adoboli, the UBS trader arrested recently for concealing $2 billion in losses. And I gotta tell you: it is hard to go rogue in the electronic age.

Filed by Olivia Williams  | 
 
 
  • Comments
  • 25
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Comments are closed for this entry
View All
Favorites
Recency  | 
Popularity
photo
castlemike
5547 Fans
04:52 AM on 09/19/2011
Interesting they had to go back three years to find some dirt when it was simply a badly over leveraged recent bet. Karl has a good point:

"Kweku Adoboli stood accused of fraud and two charges of false accounting, one of which dated back to 2008".

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?blog=Market-Ticker&page=4

Uh huh. This looks suspiciously like the "bare bank*****" that I was expecting to show up somewhere after the Swiss pulled their currency peg game a while back. A 9% move in seconds in FX is virtually guaranteed to detonate someone, simply because of the leverage in those instruments - it's monstrous (frequently 50 or even 100:1) and 9% moves of this sort are unprecedented in allegedly "stable" currency crosses. You see that sort of thing in nations like Vietnam when they devalue against a peg - not "mainstream" currencies like the Swissy
Permalink  |
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Meldy1
Nurse&Pianist,but I don't have to work!
601 Fans
 
09:52 AM on 09/18/2011
Crocodile tears...where is the dough?has he kept some amount somewhere else?It could be.I think UBS should investigate deeply and massively on this one ...OH boy!
Permalink  |
photo
Finspeak
24 Fans
 
02:00 PM on 09/17/2011
It's amazing something like this could still happen after the banking crisis, and given it's not the first time. The amounts of money are staggeringly huge and more worryingly, I get the impression that if he'd made a billion rather than lost it, the bank would be congratulating him, despite the breathtaking level of risk he took with the money.
Permalink  |
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Marchmont
75 Fans
01:56 PM on 09/17/2011
The linguistic fog surrounding a “complex financial instrument” conceals the reality of a Nick Leeson clone making casino-type punts with vast sums of other people’s money. In the 16 years since the Singapore debacle, rafts of legislation, regulation, compliance reporting, and complex computer systems have been introduced - to no effect. Kweku Adoboli, the 31 year old UBS trader, was an “expert” in exchange-traded funds and Delta One business where huge bets are taken on tiny fluctuations in asset values. Unfortunately, like Leeson and Jérôme Kerviel - who lost €5bn at Société Générale three years ago - Adoboli had extensive back-office experience of his bank's procedures. This allowed him to hide snowballing losses until they reached $2bn at this incompetent banking giant which had already needed “rescuing” by the Swiss state in 2008.
Permalink  |
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Tony Booth
55 Fans
05:49 PM on 09/17/2011
forgive my financial ignorance but if we stop bailing out these types of mistakes, wouldn't the financial institutions start to regulate themselves quite effectively for fear of going bankrupt.
Permalink  |
photo
adabar
The future is bright...
109 Fans
08:46 AM on 09/18/2011
Yes. The government bailouts must stop for these banks. Reason why I think the separation of high street banks from "casino banks" is important. In the US, Glass Steagall Act must be re-established. It seems government is in cohoots with the bank to raid the tax payers and that is just wrong. The world has gone mad!
Permalink  |
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Barbara0817
Why are My commets pending because I diagree?
151 Fans
09:07 AM on 09/18/2011
Makes sense
Permalink  |
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
AceNewsServices
Changing The World One Step At A Time
72 Fans
 
11:25 AM on 09/17/2011
Not to show l lack compassion but is this man weeping because he is sorry for what he has done or that he got caught. With so many people in world telling lies it is always difficult to know a truth from a lie as both pale into insignificance as more and more is revealed. So my answer to this statement is simply to wait and see what happens.
Permalink  |
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Miserable Swine
242 Fans
11:25 AM on 09/17/2011
Normally I would feel sorry for someone who has made a mistake and has ended up losing it all. But in this case, I cannot feel any empathy at all, except perhaps for a guy who bit off more than he can chew. This case shows more than ever that banking reform is needed and that more checks and balances should be in place. Either way, he knew what he was doing and got caught; a £1.3 billion pound fraud cannot be written off as a `tax loss` (not these days, anyway).
Permalink  |
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Lawyer13
retired Lawyer, General and Psychiatric Nurse, wit
8251 Fans
 
10:24 AM on 09/17/2011
He did have decency to own up to UBS, and is showing some remorse for his actions, understand his father worked for UN.
Permalink  |
gregoryenelson
52 Fans
09:43 AM on 09/17/2011
I think the UK taxpayers should pay UBS 1.3 billion to bail them out from the mess they have gotten themselves into. After all, without that new money their strong support for UK businesses and little old ladies will be weakened. And also, the directors will have a weaker case when they ask for large bonuses and then they might move to another firm, and we cannot have that can we.
Permalink  |
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
floodberg
Attorney (ret.)
858 Fans
06:57 PM on 09/18/2011
Its' UBS, one of the Offshore Kings;  Let's see if HK or Singapore or KL will bail 'em out first.
Permalink  |
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Candide33
I heart Bernie Sanders
4518 Fans
 
08:52 AM on 09/17/2011
Is he that Nigerian Prince who is always sending me e-mails?
Permalink  |
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Lawyer13
retired Lawyer, General and Psychiatric Nurse, wit
8251 Fans
 
10:26 AM on 09/17/2011
No I though he was Nigerian too, but he is infact from Ganah
Permalink  |
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Candide33
I heart Bernie Sanders
4518 Fans
 
12:33 PM on 09/17/2011
It was a joke, apparently it bombed :P
Permalink  |
UK Prince
0 Fans
10:45 AM on 09/17/2011
Candide33, it has nothing to do with Nigerian Prince. This is just a case of an employee gone rogue. Remember Barings; Madoff; Comrad Black; and many more!
Permalink  |