Ex-UBS trader to enter plea

Ex-UBS trader Kweku Adoboli (31) is to appear in court in London today charged with two counts of fraud and two of false accounting. Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters.

A former UBS trader accused of unauthorised dealing that cost the Swiss bank $2.3 billion and led to the resignation of its chief executive was expected to enter a plea for the first time today.

Kweku Adoboli (31), who worked as a director of exchange traded funds, has been charged with two counts of fraud and two of false accounting and is to appear at Southwark Crown Court in London at 2pm.

UBS said it had uncovered rogue trades that took place between October 2008 and December 2010.

Oswald Gruebel resigned as chief executive in September, saying the losses had shocked him deeply and that UBS needed a new leader.

Mr Adoboli, the British-educated son of a retired United Nations official from Ghana, was arrested in London on September 15th and charged a day later.

At a previous hearing, his lawyer said Mr Adoboli was "appalled at the scale of the consequences of his disastrous miscalculations".

Mr Adoboli last week switched legal teams ahead of his court appearance. London law firm Bark & Co, which specialises in fraud cases, said on Friday it was now representing him.

Kingsley Napley, which had until then been representing Mr Adoboli, confirmed it was no longer working on the case. A spokeswoman would not say why Mr Adoboli had parted company with the law firm.

Reuters 

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