Former City trader gets 7 years for fraud
The City of London trader, who carried out the UK's largest ever fraud, has been jailed for seven years. 32 year-old Kweku Adoboli cost his employees, the Swiss bank UBS, £1.4 billion after running up massive losses after he failed to stick to trading limits and did not hedge his deals.
– Mr Justice Keith, trial judge"There is a strong streak of the gambler in you. You were arrogant to think the bank's rules for traders did not apply to you."
Adoboli claimed that he was pressured by staff at the bank to take risks but the bad deals led to the bank's share value losing £2.8 billion when the trades were discovered.
He was sentenced today after a trial that lasted more than nine weeks at Southwark Crown Court in London. He was found guilty of two fraud charges but cleared of four counts of false accounting.
UBS said in a statement: "We are glad that the criminal proceedings have reached a conclusion and thank the police and the UK authorities for their professional handling of this case. We have no further comment."