Johannesburg - Ghanaian-born British trader Kweku Adoboli, who lost $2.3bn at Swiss bank UBS through unauthorised trading, has been freed from prison in England after completing almost half of his sentence, the Financial Times of London reported on Wednesday.
The 35-year-old spent nearly nine months behind bars awaiting trial in a case that scandalised the City of London and served two and a half years of a seven-year sentence handed down after his fraud conviction in November 2012.
It is unlikely that Adoboli will work in financial services again, particularly not in the UK. Apart from international notoriety for being the man behind the biggest loss by a rogue trader in British history, the UK financial services authorities are said to be taking steps to ban him.
His plans are not known but Adoboli, who was supported at trial by his father, John, a UN diplomat, and a large group of friends, seems to have plenty of resources to draw on. The prosecution portrayed him as a reckless gambler and master fraudster, but character references read to the court spoke of his honesty, generosity and dependability. The charm and cunning that the rogue trader used to get so far before being caught could be put to use in so many roles in business.
He could follow in the footsteps of various other famous rogue traders, including South African Greg Blank and Briton Nick Leeson, and go on to live an apparently happy and successful life after serving a reduced sentence. Both have authored books about their experiences and are known and fêted for their charm and initiative rather than living under a cloud of disgrace.
Blank, South Africa’s most well-known banking rogue, the erstwhile ‘king of Diagonal Street’ (where the Johannesburg Stock Exchange used to based in the eighties), ran into trouble when he was caught running a scam manipulating prices. He was sentenced to eight years in jail in 1992. While in jail, he charmed prison bosses into building a soccer field for inmates and asked friends to make donations to set up a prison gym.
Blank was released after 22 months and has gone on to launch a financial services business and indulge his passion as a racehorse owner, with a success rate that is the envy of many. Occasionally a celebrity-style interview or profile piece will appear on the internet, belying his scandalous rise to fame.
After Nick Leeson brought down Barings Bank, London’s oldest bank, by gambling away £827 million, he was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail in Singapore, where he had worked for Barings. He served four years of the sentence, being released early after developing colon cancer, which he has since beaten.
He was said to have enjoyed champagne and smoked salmon with journalists on his flight back to the UK after his release in 1999 and gave his first after-dinner speech that year. He is still speaking at conferences and other events about conduct risk. He has served as the chief executive of Galway United Football Club in Ireland and is said to have joined a debt advisory practice in that country in 2013.
The thing that will likely rile people who suffered as a result of his behaviour most is the fact that he is reported to have made a fortune from a book deal and newspaper serialisation as well as a film adaptation of his book.
Like fellow “rehabilitated” rogue traders, Adoboli will probably have another chance to apply his not-inconsiderable talents to something else, but little is often heard of others who had their careers or lives ruined in the scandals.
Although at the time, UBS stated that no clients funds were lost by Adoboli, there was plenty of other fallout. In addition to devastating reputational damage, according to the UK’s Daily Telegraph, the amount lost was almost the same as savings UBS had planned to make by cutting 3 500 jobs.
Oswald Grübel, UBS chief executive resigned “to assume responsibility” for the incident. He was later followed out the door by Francois Gouws and Yassine Bouhara, the co-heads of global equities at UBS.
And, adding insult to injury, the UK’s financial regulator fined UBS £29.7 million for system and control failings that allowed the unauthorised trading.
ANA