UBS ex-trader sentenced to 7 years in prison

M. Adoboli, a former trader for the Swiss bank UBS, received seven years in prison for fraudulent actions that caused the financial institution to lose $2.3 billion.
dollars.

On Tuesday, a jury in a London court reached a guilty verdict: Mr. Adoboli abused his authority between 2008 and 2011 when he participated in unauthorized trading by the bank. But, at the same time, he was not found guilty of false reporting.

The 32-year-old trader claimed in his defense that "his activities were aimed at making a profit, and his colleagues were well aware of that. The prosecutor described Mr. Adoboli as "ambitious" and a "gambler" who skirted laws when it suited him.

On the night of September 15, a trader was arrested at the London office of UBS after he admitted in an email that he had been breaking internal bank rules for years. The scandal prompted the resignation of UBS executive director Oswald Grubel and the management of the investment division.

Trouble in the banking sector coincided with the beginning of the weakening of the European financial system. Thus, in 2008, a trader for the French bank Société Générale, Jerome Kerviel, was accused and later convicted of causing $6.8 billion in damages. Both former traders traded in the derivatives market.

A native of Ghana, Adoboli began working at UBS as an intern after graduating from the University of Nottingham in 2003. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a securities trader at Exchange Traded Funds, the Delta One trading platform and derivatives in 2006.

Financial losses began to accumulate from the summer of 2011, when Mr. Adoboli mistakenly bet on the unpromising direction of the financial market, which "bogged down" in the European debt crisis. During this period, UBS, according to analysts, lost $12 billion.