UBS trader to be held until next week: Court
UBS said
LONDON: A tearful Kweku Adoboli appeared in a London court on Friday charged with fraud after Swiss bank
UBS said it had lost about $2 billion in unauthorised trades.
The court ordered him to be detained until a further hearing next week.
Wearing a light blue sweater and a white shirt, Adoboli, 31, wiped tears from his eyes as he appeared before City of London Magistrates Court and was handed a tissue by the court clerk.
Adoboli, who worked as a director of exchange traded funds at UBS, was formally accused of two counts of false accounting, one of which dated back to 2008, and one count of fraud by abuse of position.
The fraud was alleged to have taken place between January and September this year.
The charge stated: "While occupying a position, namely being a senior trader with Global Synthetic Equities, in which you were expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of UBS Bank, you dishonestly abused that position intending thereby to make a gain for yourself, causing losses to UBS or to expose UBS to risk of loss."
The false accounting charges were said to have taken place between Oct. 2008 and Dec. 2009, and Jan. 2010 and Sept. 2011.
The first said he had falsified "an exchange traded fund made or acquired for an accounting purpose" while the second accused him of "falsifying an exchange traded fund transaction and other internal records".
Adoboli, the son of a retired United Nations employee from Ghana, spoke only to confirm his name and address and he was remanded in custody until Sept. 22 when he will appear again in the same court.
"This is to allow you to make a bail application," said magistrate Carolyn Wagstaff.
"They are extremely serious charges."
Adoboli will face a further committal hearing for his case to be transferred to a higher court on Oct. 28, Wagstaff added.
Adoboli later composed himself during the short hearing and managed a few smiles at people sitting in the public gallery of the court.
Copyright Reuters, 2011
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