Reuters London
UBS TRADER Kweku Adoboli faced a new fraud charge when he made a brief court appearance in London yesterday for a hearing over alleged unauthorised trading which the Swiss bank said cost it $2.3 billion (R17.7bn).
Adoboli, already accused of fraud amounting to more than $1.5bn, has now also been charged with fraud dating to the period from October 2008 to December 2010, which prosecutors said related to “reckless and inappropriate” trades.
Wearing a grey suit, the 31-year-old bowed to the public gallery when he entered a packed courtroom at the City of London Magistrate’s Court.
Adoboli acknowledged several acquaintances in the public gallery and spoke in a confident voice to confirm his name, but made no other statement.
His lawyer, Patrick Gibbs, said Adoboli was “sorry beyond words for what had happened”. He did not enter a plea and was remanded in custody until a further hearing next month. “He stands now appalled at the scale of the consequences of his disastrous miscalculations,” Gibbs said.
Adoboli, the British-educated son of a retired UN official from Ghana, was arrested last week. The case has prompted criticism of the bank’s control mechanism and its business model embracing wealth management and investment banking.