Former star UBS trader Kweku Adoboli was arrested Thursday on fraud charges after accusations he may have cost the Swiss banking giant $2 billion through unauthorized trading. The alleged rogue trader has been charged with one fraud offense and two accounting offenses. He has so far not entered a plea to any of the charges.
Kweku Adoboli worked at UBS in London at the ‘Delta One’ desk on exchange-traded funds (ETF) for the past five years. UBS discovered a $ billion loss tracked back to Adoboli’s department on Wednesday. UBS informed the City of London police, leading to Adoboli’s arrest at 3:30AM on Thursday.
“…the Crown Prosecution Service authorised the charging of Kweku Adoboli, from Bethnal Green. City of London police has since charged the 31-year-old with fraud by abuse of position and false accounting,” the police said.
“He involved himself with trades which were highly dangerous for the bank,” prosecutor David Levy said during Adoboli’s initial court hearing. The prosecutor said the alleged offenses range over a time frame from 2008 to the present. Magistrate Carolyn Wagstaff ordered the 31-year-old UBS trader to be held in jail until he returns to court on Sept. 22.
The investigation is currently ongoing with “close collaboration” with the Finacial Services Authority and the Serious Fraud Office. Kweku Adoboli has reportedly retained the services of high-powered law office Kingsley Napley.
UBS had already announced last month it would begin making cuts to their operations to save money. This latest loss coming to light may force the company to dig even deeper to slash costs.