Kweku Adoboli was born in Tema, Ghana, in 1980, the son of a United Nations diplomat. After spending time in various countries, he moved to the UK with his family in 1991. He studied at Ackworth School in Yorkshire, then did a degree in e-commerce and digital business studies at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 2003. He then got a job at investment bank UBS, starting in an administrative back-office job before moving to a senior role on the bank’s trading team on the desk dealing with exchange-traded funds.
What was the scam?
As well as executing client orders, Adoboli’s team was also allowed to risk the bank’s own money on positions. However, Adoboli began making bets that far exceeded his risk limits, exploiting holes in the system to cover up the amount of risk he was taking, as well as the money that he was losing. He booked fictitious trades in the opposite direction to the positions that he was taking, giving the false impression that he was hedged (that is, that the fictitious trades would offset any profits or losses on his real trades).
What happened next?
Initially, Adoboli’s trades worked, making net profits of $40m in 2009 and 2010. However, in the market turbulence of the summer of 2010, he sustained huge losses that at one point stood at £7.5bn. Although he managed to claw back some of the money, it became clear that the remaining losses would be too large to hide. Facing an investigation from the bank, he confessed what he had done in September 2011 and was arrested. He had racked up the largest unauthorised trading losses in British history. Despite arguing that UBS was aware of his acitivities, Adoboli was convicted of fraud and sentenced to seven years in jail.
Subscribe to MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Lessons for investors
Adoboli’s losses ran to about £1.4bn, and news of the fraud wiped £2.7bn off UBS’s market capitalisation. Its share price still hasn’t fully recovered, suggesting that fraud can sometimes be a symptom of poor underlying management. Adoboli claimed that most of his losses stemmed from being talked into reversing a short position prematurely by the rest of his team, but he also lost large sums of money through his personal spread-betting activities and, despite a six-figure salary, was dependent on payday loans. Making large risky bets while running up debt is rarely a good idea. Doing it with your firm’s money without its knowledge, even less so.
-
Water companies blocked from using customer money to pay “undeserved” bonusesThe regulator has blocked three water companies from using billpayer money to pay £1.5 million in exec bonuses
-
Will the Bitcoin price hit $100,000?With Bitcoin prices trading just below $100,000, we explore whether the cryptocurrency can hit the milestone.
-
Elon Musk enters the White House – what happens now?Elon Musk has achieved the seemingly impossible many times before in the business world. But will he be able to cut the US government down to size?
-
Sri Mulyani Indrawati: Indonesia’s Iron LadyKeeping Sri Mulyani Indrawati on as Indonesia's finance minister has steadied the ship after the election of a former military general spooked financial markets
-
Media mogul James Dolan takes straight shot at the limelightControversial media mogul James Dolan has been hailed as a visionary for his Sphere arena in Las Vegas. But can he square the circle financially?
-
Do we need central banks, or is it time to privatise money?Analysis Free banking is one alternative to central banks, but would switching to a radical new system be worth the risk?
-
Byju’s – the startling rise and fallIndia’s educational technology start-up Byju's attracted big-name backers and soared to vertiginous heights during Covid. It has now plummeted. What happened?
-
Indian magnate Ratan Tata dies at 86 – how he made a mark in the UKRatan Tata took the helm of the family business in 1991 and transformed it into an international conglomerate worth $365bn. His death plunged India into mourning
-
Jimmy Carter makes history as the first former US president to turn 100When Jimmy Carter left office, few would have predicted an outbreak of national affection for the former president’s 100th birthday four decades later. But his legacy is worth celebrating
-
Eric Adams: the New York City mayor charged with corruptionControversy and accusations of corruption have followed Eric Adams in his rise to the mayoralty of New York City. Now he has been charged with a federal crime.
