Kweku Adoboli, the trader charged with blowing a $2.3bn hole in the books of UBS, allegedly disguised huge lossmaking positions with fictitious counter-trades, the bank has stated, the same tactic used by Jérôme Kerviel who caused -4.9bn of losses at France’s Société Générale in 2008
Kweku Adoboli, the trader charged with blowing a $2.3bn hole in the books of UBS, allegedly disguised huge lossmaking positions with fictitious counter-trades, the bank has stated, the same tactic used by Jérôme Kerviel who caused €4.9bn of losses at France’s Société Générale in 2008.
As one senior UBS executive likened the trading scandal to “a terrorist attack” that was impossible to prevent, the group revised upwards its estimate of the loss caused by Mr Adoboli from an earlier estimate of $2bn and attempted to shore up the position of chief executive Oswald Grübel.
In a statement on Sunday aimed at reassuring staff and investors, UBS said the extent of the risk exposure escaped detection because fake hedging positions had been placed into the bank’s systems allegedly by Mr Adoboli.
Related
The Swiss bank is trying to get on top of a scandal that has spurred calls for Mr Grübel to step down and for it to scale back dramatically its investment banking activities.
According to UBS, the 31-year old Mr Adoboli, a junior trader on UBS’s “Delta One” desk in London, built up lossmaking positions over the past three months in S&P 500, DAX and Euro Stoxx index futures.
To read the full story, visit ft.com
Content from our partners
