Rogue Trading Suspect Back In Court

An alleged rogue trader accused of losing a record £1.5bn while working for a Swiss bank in London faces an extra charge of fraud, a court heard.

Kweku Adoboli was dressed smartly in a suit and tie as he entered the dock at a packed City of London Magistrates Court this morning.

As he confirmed his name and address, the 31-year-old put his hand to his heart and nodded to a group of friends sitting amongst reporters in the public gallery.

Adoboli, the son of a former Ghanaian official to the UN, is accused of making unauthorised trades while working for banking giant UBS in the City of London.

David Levy, prosecuting, said Adoboli, of Clark Street, East London, now faces an additional charge of fraud as well as two of false accounting dating back to 2008.

The new fraud offence is alleged to have taken place between October 2008 and December 2010.

Adoboli joined UBS as a trainee in 2002 and later became a senior trader with the bank's global synthetic equities division, buying and selling exchange traded funds which track different types of stocks, bonds or commodities.

After his first appearance in court last week UBS revised the cost of its estimated losses upwards from £1.3bn to £1.5bn.

During the 10 minute hearing Adoboli made no application for bail and gave no indication of how he will plead.

Magistrates remanded him in custody to re-appear at City of London Magistrates Court on October 20 for a committal hearing.

The city watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, and its Swiss counterpart have launched an investigation into why UBS failed to spot the allegedly fraudulent trading.