UBS fraud trader jailed for seven years Kweku Adoboli, the former UBS trader whose unauthorised trading led to losses of $2.3bn at the Swiss bank, has been jailed for seven years after being convicted of Britain's biggest banking fraud. Judge Brian Keith told Adoboli his "fall from grace as a result of these convictions is spectacular." He said Adoboli had a "strong streak of the gambler" and had been "arrogant" enough to think the bank's rules did not apply to him. A jury at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday returned verdicts of guilty on two counts of fraud by abuse of position, including one count relating to the unauthorised $2.3bn of losses he racked up at UBS. They returned not guilty verdicts on four charges of false accounting, which related to fictitious hedging trades, and fictitious cash-only trades, which he booked to conceal that risk. The 10-strong jury had returned a unanimous verdict on the most serious fraud charge on Tuesday morning but deliberated for another 90 minutes on the other five charges after being told by the judge he would accept a majority verdict on the remainder. Adoboli, 32, stood in the dock with his head bowed as he heard the verdicts. Prosecutors had alleged during the 10-week trial that Adoboli had "fraudulently gambled" away the bank's money, exceeded his intraday trading limits of $100m and made unhedged trades by "inventing fictitious deals" to distort his risk position which then exposed the bank to huge losses. Adoboli had testified that he began his activities in 2008 to cover a $400,000 trading loss and after that had used fictitious hedging trades to conceal the fact that his real trades were unhedged. Adoboli's trades became larger and by August 8 2011, the bank thought the reported risk was $2.3m but the real risk exposure was $11.85bn. In his defence, Adoboli argued that everything he did was for the benefit of the bank, which he loved "like family." He claimed that other co-workers on the ETFs desk, management and the back office knew what he was doing and turned a blind eye as long as he was making profits. He also claimed unhedged trading was something he had learnt from others and that traders were under pressure to take risks to maximise profits. Adoboli's scheme came to an end in the summer of 2011 when people at the bank started asking questions about his trading. He was able to sidestep those inquiries but on September 14, prosecutors said that Adoboli's "pyramid of fraud" had "collapsed" after phone calls from William Steward, a back office UBS accountant, querying the sums. Adoboli walked out of UBS that lunchtime, went home and sent a "bombshell email" to Mr Steward "confessing" the trades he had been seeking clarification over were "not real trades at all" and his explanations had been "just lies" prosecutors had alleged. Adoboli also suggested to the court that across the industry no one was willing to stand up to the banking industry and testify on his behalf during the trial. "You've seen the size of the machine," he told the jury. Adoboli's trial has exposed a number of shortcomings of UBS's supervision of the ETF desk and indicated its "more aggressive" attitude to pursuing profits. The revelations of the huge losses racked up by Mr Adoboli's trading triggered the departure of Oswald Grübel, its chief executive. Detective Chief Inspector Perry Stokes, from the City of London Police, which investigated the case, said this was the UK's "biggest fraud committed by one of the most sophisticated fraudsters the City of London Police has ever come across." He said that Adoboli appeared to be a man whose career prospects and future earnings were taking off and who worked hard and looked the part. "But behind this façade lay a trader who was running completely out of control and exposing UBS to huge financial risks on a daily basis," DCI Stokes said.