UBS bank trader remanded in custody

Kewku Adoboli in Facebook pose now facing the book in court

The powers-that-be have acted swifty in locking up the so-called rogue trader Kweku Adoboli. He's been accused of breach of trust and false accounting. As if the banks are themselves not in a big way involved in breach of trust with the British public. As for false accounting, I'd say that was a hard one to prove. But try to prove it they will.

These traders never seem to benefit themselves apart from becoming famous. Perhaps we should have a Big Brother session for rogue traders? But as with Jerome Kerviel of Societe Generale and Nick Leeson of Barings fame, the hapless Adoboli was a back room boy also operating front of house. UBS obviously learnt nothing from previous shinanigans.

It was said of Kerviel that he had a motive in proving that Anglo-Saxon banking methods had little place in the Gallic world of France. In Nick Leeson's case he seemed to want to prove that a boy from a humble background could outsmart the Baring toffs. Whatever the motives, someone needs to sort out these computerised money changers before they wreck the world.

And I notice that UBS has been having a hard time at the hands of the IRS in America. Having been in cahoots with tax evaders for a long time Uncle Sam got to the end of his tether and the bank had to do a deal in handing over the details of tax cheats who were preferring to put their money in cuckoo clocks rather than tax coffers in Washington. IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman is after the unpatriotic dodgers. 12,000 of them came clean in a tax amnesty. "Americans now understand that if they try to hide assets overseas, the chances of being caught continue to increase." It's a start. After all, we're in this together, aren't we?

Posted in: banks,Kweku Adoboli,rogue traders,UBS