UBS rogue trader, Kweku Adoboli will make his latest court appearance today where he will enter a plea in mitigation against two counts of fraud and two charges of false accounting at Southwark Crown Court.
Mr Adoboli, 31, from East London is accused of losing £1.4 billion, causing UBS losses, exposing the bank to the risk of loss and trying to make a personal gain.
Mr Adoboli pleaded not guilty to the charges and this means that an extended trial is likely.
The trial, which is expected to last for months, will see the working practices of traders at UBS forensically examined, potentially highlighting inappropriate working practices at UBS. In reality, if poor working practices did occur, it is almost certain that they happen at other banks. However, UBS will be the bank in the spotlight at the trial.
The trial comes at a time when the bank is trying to restructure its business and shift focus away from its investment division which has been hampered by regulatory burdens and a battle with US regulators over alleged tax evasion by some of UBS's biggest clients from the United States.
Mr Adoboli worked for Swiss investment bank UBS’s global synthetic equities division. The main part of his job was buying and selling exchange traded funds (ETF’s). These funds track different types of bonds, stocks and commodities.
Traders are supposed to secure their positions by taking up hedging positions to guard against losses. It is alleged that Mr Adoboli neglected to do this.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) launched an investigation into why UBS took so long to discover the fraudulent trading.
