Colleague of UBS rogue trader Adoboli weeps in London court
A FORMER UBS trader wept in a London dock yesterday after reading an email in which alleged rogue trader Kweku Adoboli, a former colleague accused of fraud, admitted to unauthorised trades that risked undermining the Swiss bank and colleagues.
John Hughes, 30, one of the most senior former traders on the bank’s Exchange Traded Funds (ETF) desk in London, conceded he also made some unauthorised trades. But he insisted he did not know that Adoboli had been creating fictitious trades. He smiled when calling his former colleague an “excessive” gambler.
Hughes told the court he did not know the extent of losses Adoboli had exposed the bank to in a secret “umbrella” account. Adoboli, 32, was arrested on 15 September 2011 and is now on trial for fraud and false accounting that cost UBS $2.3bn (£1.4bn).
Hughes, who was dismissed for gross misconduct weeks after Adoboli’s arrest, has not been charged with any crime and was in court only to give evidence at Adoboli’s trial.