The Global Note: Rogue Trader…Africa Famine…Afghan Rock Show…The “Sleepbox”
ROGUE TRADER CHARGED
Rogue trader suspect Kweku Adoboli was charged by police today in London with fraud and false accounting over $2 billion worth of unauthorised deals at Swiss banking giant UBS. He will appear in court later today. His last posting on Facebook read “I need a miracle.” One can only imagine what was going through his mind as he sat at his desk in the wee hours of yesterday, looking at that $2 billion loss. If, as reports in the British media say, UBS only discovered the massive loss because Mr Adoboli informed his colleagues, rather than by the bank’s own monitoring controls, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in the ability of investment banks to effectively manage risk. The law firm which represented Nick Leeson (who famously brought down Barings in 1995) says that it’s been hired to represent Adoboli. The Financial Times reports UBS losses could mean that thousands of UBS bankers will receive zero bonuses this year. The BBC is reporting the UBS trader, Kweku Abodoli, who cost the bank $6.7 billion alerted the bank himself.
