‘Rogue trader’ Kweku Adoboli accused of gambling away £1.5 billion

THE suspected rogue trader accused of gambling away a record £1.5 billion was back in court today.

Kweku Adoboli, 31, will face a second count of fraud in addition to two charges of false accounting over three years at Swiss banking giant UBS, City of London Magistrates’ Court heard.

He was remanded in custody until October 20.

Adoboli, who was educated at Ackworth Quaker School in West Yorkshire, gave no indication of how he will plead.

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Adoboli appeared in the dock in a tailored grey suit with navy blue tie.

He put his hand on his heart and nodded to the public gallery as he took to his feet to confirm his name and address.

David Levy, for the prosecution, said Adoboli now faces two charges of fraud.

The new fraud offence was alleged to have taken place between October 1 2008 and December 31 2010.

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After the 10-minute hearing, Alison Gowman, the chief magistrate, said Adoboli will appear at the same court on October 20 for a committal hearing.

Prosecutors allege he gambled away the cash while working at UBS’s global synthetic equities division, buying and selling exchange traded funds, which track different types of stocks, bonds or commodities such as metals.

Adoboli, from Clark Street, east London, has made no application for bail.

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

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

The £1.5 billion 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.”

The two accusations of false accounting - which date back to 2008 - claim that he “falsified a record, namely an exchange traded fund transaction”.

After Adoboli’s first appearance in court, UBS revised upwards the cost of the rogue trading to 2.3 billion US dollars (£1.5 billion) after previously saying the incident had cost it in the range of two billion US dollars (£1.3 billion).

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

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