He added that traders were pushed to make profits "no matter what". Asked if the crimes he committed - booking fictitious trades to cover up gambles in the hunt for profits - could happen again, he said: "Absolutely". Adoboli - the biggest rogue trader in British history and described by the prosecution at his trial as a "master fraudster" and "sophisticated liar" - now faces deportation to Ghana , where he was born. He said he is fighting the order as he is as "British in culture" as anyone living in the UK and could help the finance sector to reform by sharing his experiences.
After coming out of prison a year ago , year-old Adoboli, who has lived in Britain since he was 12, said he had been prevented from taking paid work. He is living with friends in Edinburgh and speaks for free at banking compliance conferences. I asked him if behaviour in banking had changed since he was found guilty in of two counts of fraud and sentenced to seven years in prison. Choose your subscription. Trial Try full digital access and see why over 1 million readers subscribe to the FT. For 4 weeks receive unlimited Premium digital access to the FT's trusted, award-winning business news.
Digital Be informed with the essential news and opinion. Delivery to your home or office Monday to Saturday FT Weekend paper — a stimulating blend of news and lifestyle features ePaper access — the digital replica of the printed newspaper. Team or Enterprise Premium FT. Adoboli, released from prison two years ago, is now an Edinburgh-based public speaker and consultant.
He is also fighting deportation to his family's native Ghana. The former trader believes that what historians refer to as the financialization of society — the increasing role of financial incentives and markets as well as their actors and institutions in our economy and society — will wreak havoc if not addressed.
He cited academic research by Margaret Heffernan, a University of Bath lecturer who argues that people become unable to make morally sound judgements when they are in extreme conflict, pressured or confronted with immense complexity, and Maryam Kouchaki , a Northwestern Kellogg professor who researches why good employees misbehave.
When Adoboli took the stand, she tore into him. He grew defensive, abrasive, smug. The courtroom was filled with representatives from UBS, who occupied seats normally allocated to the press with a host of pricey advisers — solicitors from Herbert Smith, a barrister who passed instructions to the prosecutors on Post-it notes, external and internal PR advisers.
Adoboli maintains that others did in fact know, and actively encouraged his behaviour for more than two years while it was profitable. During the trial, it emerged that the bank had uncovered at least three other separate instances of unauthorised trading. His friends maintain that others should have been prosecuted as well. He was acquitted on four counts of false accounting. As Adoboli heard the sentence read out he was afraid for what lay ahead, both for himself and his friends and family.
After his conviction, Adoboli was sent to The Verne prison, situated in an old army base on an island off the coast of Weymouth. He tried to stay positive, creating a routine for himself. The Home Office looks to deport any foreign national prisoners who have been sentenced to more than four years, and Adoboli was no exception.
The other inmates taught him how to heat his dinners by unplugging the cord from his radio and sticking it in a pot of water to make it boil. He learnt which inmates tended towards violence and how to avoid them. His letters grew longer and more despairing. His relationship with his girlfriend grew strained. I first visited him in the autumn of last year, taking the train on a grey Sunday.
Visiting hours were from 1. We sat on red plastic chairs bolted to the floor for two-and-a-half hours, him drinking black coffee and me green tea, as he told me of his battles trying to get moved to a prison for lesser offenders and I told him tales of the outside world.
His friend from Nottingham joked that it took going to prison for them to be able to spend time together again. He was too preoccupied with work while at UBS. He was the most connected but least reachable person during that time. Adoboli was released from prison in June after serving just over half his seven-year sentence. Since then he has sought a return to normality. In July, he was at the office of his trial lawyers when he was handed his old iPhone, one of the earliest models, which had been seized by the police when he was arrested.
It had 20 missed calls and 47 unread texts on it, but he could not bring himself to look at them. Menu choices in restaurants overwhelmed him and he stuck to ordering burgers.
He would read the texts eventually, he said, but not yet. People are starting to recognise him on the street, he says. A ticket agent at the Clapham South Tube station. The Home Office won a ruling earlier this month ordering him to be deported to Ghana. That is the ultimate punishment. Adoboli says he has a debt to help clean up the industry and prevent others from going down the path he did by holding himself up as a cautionary tale.
In his eyes, there are bound to be similar failings while the chasm between the profit demands of management and the rules of compliance remain. He believes that by holding up himself and Tom Hayes , the former UBS and Citigroup derivatives trader who was jailed in August this year for manipulating Libor, as rotten apples in an otherwise clean industry, the banks are moving on without considering what happened to allow or even encourage their misconduct.
Neither Adoboli nor Hayes denied their actions. Both were found guilty. Whittaker, who contacted Adoboli in prison and has sought his advice since, maintains that the former UBS trader is invaluable to him and has been well received by traders. They stood hovering around him, wanting to chat further or express their sympathy.
But will the industry listen to compliance instructions from a man known as a notorious fraudster? But he has high moral standards, and it happened.
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