UBS trader jailed for UK's biggest fraud warns it could happen again
Kweku Adoboli, the ex-UBS trader jailed four years ago for the biggest fraud in British history, has said his crimes could be repeated as those working in the banking industry still faced the same pressure to make profits "no matter what". Adoboli, a senior trader on the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) desk at UBS's investment banking arm in London, cost the Swiss bank $2.3 billion after trading far in excess of his authorized risk limits and making fictitious book entries to hide his true positions. "Especially as we go into what could be the next phase of the great financial crisis over the next 12 to 18 to 24 months." During his trial Ghanaian-born Adoboli said everything he did was to make profits for UBS and was in line with the bank's culture, but prosecutors accused him of playing God with UBS's money in the belief that he had the magic touch, driven by a desire to be a star trader with a huge bonus to match.