14.09.2012
By Simon Miller
The UBS rogue trader who lost the bank $2.3bn (£1.43bn) with his fraud because he wanted to boost his ego, the prosecution has told Southwark Crown Court.
Kweku Adoboli, 32, has been accused of losing $2.8bn in illicit trades which saw £2.8bn being wiped off UBS’s share price.
Sasha Wass QC, prosecuting, told the jury that he broke the rules limiting bankers and lied to superiors to cover up his illegal actions.
The prosecution added that Adoboli had gambled such vast sums that he could have “easily approached and even exceed the limits” of the resources of one of the largest investment banks in the world.
Wass continued: “He did this by exceeding his trading limits, inventing fictitious deals to conceal this and then lying to his bosses.”
She added: “Mr Adoboli's motive was to increase his bonus, his status, his job prospects and his ego.
"Like most gamblers, he believed he had the magic touch. Like most gamblers, when he lost, he caused chaos and disaster to himself and all of those around him."
He was a "trusted" and "admired" member of the team and "rewarded with large bonuses" for making what the bosses thought were huge profits for the bank.
Wass said: "But Mr Adoboli's greed got the better of him and he took advantage of the bank's trust to cheat the system for his own gain."
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