Ex-UBS Trader Says He Lied When He Said He Acted Alone

Kweku Adoboli, the former trader, said after admitting he made unauthorized trades last year he quickly realized his initial story that he had acted alone would fall apart once it was scrutinized.

'There’s a problem with my story that I acted alone - it just doesn’t hold water', Adoboli said in a text message to his girlfriend on September 14th, 2011, while he was being interviewed by UBS managers. 'There are too many minuscule pieces of evidence that will end up ripping the story to pieces'. He was arrested later that day.

Bloomberg reports that Adoboli is on trial in London accused of fraud and false accounting for a $2.3bn trading loss. He ended eight days of testimony Tuesday by saying the text messages indicated his realization he would 'have to tell more of the truth about the involvement of others'.

In the meantime, Reuters reports that Adoboli denied on Monday that he was addicted to gambling, saying that big losses on his personal betting accounts were due to his life spiralling out of control.

'There was not an addiction', Adoboli said, arguing that spread-betting was extremely common among traders and that it helped them to keep in touch with the market and 'to be better traders'.

'It's like a taxi driver driving his own taxi home', said Adoboli.

Adoboli Says Initial Lie He Acted Alone Shouldn’t Hold Up

UBS "rogue trader" denies he was addicted to gambling