Former UBS trader jailed for seven years
Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli was convicted and sentenced to seven years in jail today for losing the Swiss bank $2.3bn (£1.45bn) in what is thought to be the biggest fraud in British history.
Adoboli, a senior trader on the ETF desk at UBS, was accused of carrying out unhedged trades far in excess of his authorised risk limits, concealing his true risk exposure by booking fictitious hedging trades, and concealing some of his profits so that he could plough them back into the official accounts when it suited him.
He was found guilty of two counts of fraud and not guilty of four counts of false accounting. The jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on the main fraud count, holding him directly responsible for the $2.3bn loss.
Jailing him today, mr Justice Keith told Adoboli today: “There is the strong streak of the gambler in you, borne out by your personal trading. You were arrogant enough to think that the bank’s rules for traders did not apply to you.
“And you denied that you were a rogue trader, claiming that at all times you were acting in the bank’s interests, while conveniently ignoring that the real characteristic of the rogue trader is that he ignores the rules designed to manage risk.”