Adoboli’s Fate Decided at Wine Bar as UBS Market Bets Unravelled

On a cool late summer evening last year in London’s financial district, with the euro-zone crisis worsening and Greece tottering on the edge of default, Kweku Adoboli says he asked the three traders who worked with him at UBS’s exchange-traded funds desk to join him for a drink.

Bloomberg reports that Adoboli said in a post on his Facebook page that he needed 'a miracle' as his bets on the market imploded. That night at a wine bar across the street from their office, Adoboli asked John Hughes, the senior trader on the ETF desk, and two junior traders, what to do.

The others decided he should take the blame for billions of dollars in losses and an elaborate web of secret trades in what he called an umbrella account that once held $40m in hidden profits.

'I knew I was going to lose my job anyway, I had already resigned myself to that, so fair enough', the 32-year-old Adoboli testified last month about the meeting, which the other traders deny took place.

Two days after the alleged meeting, on Sept. 14, 2011, Adoboli told a UBS accountant that he was responsible for causing the losses, which totalled $2.3bn once the trades were unwound, leading to one of the highest-profile banking trials in British history. Prosecutors said the risks at one point approached $12bn and threatened the survival of UBS (UBSN), the largest Swiss bank.

Hit the link below to access the complete Bloomberg article:

Adoboli’s Fate Decided at Wine Bar as UBS Market Bets Unravelled

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