Kweku M. Adoboli a UBS trader accused of embezzling $2.3 billion

Kweku Adoboli, the Ghanaian born and accused embezzler leaves City of London Magistrates Court

Kweku M. Adoboli, a 31-year-old, Ghanaian born trader in UBS’s Global Synthetic Equity business in London is accused of being a rogue trader for embezzling $2.3 billion. Adoboli was responsible for assisting clients dealing in derivatives based on exchange-traded funds.

In 1991, as an 11-year-old, Adoboli migration from Ghana to London with his mother. He attended Ackworth School, a private boarding school where he excelled academically. He was appointed the Head Boy of the school in his final year and later attended the University of Nottingham, where he obtained a degree in e-commerce and digital business. Three years after graduating from Nottingham, he secured a job at the blue chip Swiss investment bank UBS. He was considered to be very hardworking and extremely intelligent.

Within a couple of years of joining UBS in 2006, he rose through the ranks and eventually attained the position of Director of ETF Trading; earning a seven digit pay packet as a star trader.

According to British law, Adoboli is accused of abusing his authority through dishonest acts. Dishonest act is a type of fraud that is similar to the “right of honest services” statute in the United States. Adoboli could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of the alleged crimes.

UBS was originally the abbreviation for the Union Bank of Switzerland, one of its predecessors; however, UBS ceased to be considered a representational abbreviation after its 1998 merger with Swiss Bank Corporation.

UBS AG is a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland and employs approximately 65,000 people. It operates in more than 40 countries and considered as the world's second largest manager of private wealth assets, with over 2.2 trillion in invested assets.