Kweku Adoboli, UBS Trader Guilty Of Fraud Over �1.4bn Loss

A City trader who lost �1.4bn ($2.2bn) of Swiss bank UBS's money has been found guilty of one count of fraud. Kweku Adoboli, 32, of Whitechapel, east London, denied four charges of false accounting and two of fraud between October 2008 and September 2011. The prosecution told Southwark Crown Court he was "a gamble or two away from destroying Switzerland's largest bank". Adoboli said he was encouraged to take risks by his bosses. The jury is deliberating on the other charges. Adoboli, who was arrested on 15 September 2011, worked in UBS's global synthetic equities division, buying and selling exchange traded funds (ETFs), which track stocks, bonds and commodities. He had joined the bank as a junior trader in 2006. The court was told Adoboli lost �1.4bn of the bank's money in "unprotected, unhedged, incautious and reckless" trades. But Adoboli, the Ghana-born son of a diplomat, told the jury his senior managers were aware of his actions and encouraged him to take risks.