General News of Thursday, 22 September 2011

Source: skynews

UBS rogue trader, Adoboli, remanded in court

Kweku AdoboliKweku Adoboli

Rogue trading suspect Kweku Adoboli is said to be "appalled" by the scale of a £1. 5bn loss at the Swiss bank UBS.

The 31-year-old City worker's lawyer told City of London Magistrates his client was "deeply sorry" for what happened at UBS as a consequence of "disastrous miscalculation".

Adboli is accused of fraud and false accounting over three years. He has not yet submitted a plea to the charges.

Magistrates ordered him to be remanded in custody until October 20, after no application for bail was submitted.

Following Adoboli's first appearance in court on Monday, UBS revised upwards the cost of the rogue trading it discovered last week from $2bn (£1. 3bn) to $2. 3bn (£1. 5bn).

Prosecutors claim Adoboli lost the cash while working in UBS' equities division, buying and selling exchange traded funds, which track different types of stocks, bonds or commodities such as metals.

The alleged fraud offence took place between January 1 and September 14 this year.

Adoboli, son of a former Ghanaian official to the United Nations, joined the Swiss firm in a junior capacity in 2002.

The fraud charge against him reads: "While occupying a position, namely being a senior trader with Global Synthetic Equities, in which you were expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of UBS Bank, you dishonestly abused that position intending thereby to make a gain for yourself, causing losses to UBS or to expose UBS to risk of loss."

City watchdog the Financial Services Authority and its Swiss counterpart have launched an investigation into why UBS failed to spot allegedly fraudulent trading.