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UBS trader Kweku Adoboli guilty of fraud over £1.4bn loss | |
(35 minutes later) | |
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. | 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". | 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. | 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. | |
'Magic touch' | |
He claimed he lost control over his trades during a period of market turbulence last year. | He claimed he lost control over his trades during a period of market turbulence last year. |
The court heard that at one point he stood to lose the bank £7.5bn ($12bn). | |
The judge, Mr Justice Keith, gave the jury a majority verdict direction, saying they could deliver a 9-1 verdict on the remaining five charges. | |
The jury has been reduced to five men and five women after two jurors were discharged. | |
The prosecution said Adoboli was a gambler who believed he had the "magic touch". | |
But, giving evidence, Adoboli said everything he had done was aimed at benefiting the bank, where he viewed his colleagues as "family". | |
Adoboli said he had "lost control in the maelstrom of the financial crisis", and was doing well until he changed from a conservative "bearish" position to an aggressive "bullish" stance under pressure from senior managers. | |
He told the jury that staff were encouraged to take risks until they got "a slap on the back of the wrist". |