I’m sure you’ve all read about Kweku Adoboli and the £1.3 Billion losses to UBS bank…. Personally I’m keeping mum about my feelings (even though I have many), but as I explained to my baby boy yesterday, -banking is like gambling (yes I explained to Jojo that gambling is bad) and sometime you win, and win BIG but mostly, you take the RISK and loose BIG time…. Anyway, I don’t know all the ins ‘n’ outs but no one has a bad word to say about brother Kweku Adoboli, -thus I’m guessing that one or many of his gambles just didn’t pay off, and unlike the guys at Ladbrokes or Paddy Power (found on most high streets in London), he was gambling with billions.
Still as I keep mum about my feelings concerning brother Kweku and the losses -I’m grappling with this (note -I’m half Kwahu), …if he was making £130’000 + plus serious bonuses a year, why on earth was he renting????? Very un Ghanaian me thinks??? Did he build homes in Ghana or Togo (some are claiming that he is Togolese)? Did he have any business ventures in Ghana???
Anyway its sad. Sad for UBS who even before this happened were planning on laying -off staff, plus in the wake of all this, -will not be giving out bonuses for the first time in the company’s history. Its also very sad for Kweku, a nice young man, a typically well brought up Ghanaian man who flew a bit tooooo close to the sun, but as my mate Kwame said, he will bounce back -all bankers do!!!!
The following is more info and is taken from the Daily Mail…..
Title: 'He made a mistake': Father of suspected UBS fraudster speaks as his son appears in court accused of gambling away a £1.3bn fortune.....
By Chris Greenwood, Stephen Wright and Arthur Martin
Dated: 17th September 2011
A smiling Kweku Adoboli, 31, leaves City of London magistrates court yesterday...
The father of the suspected rogue trader Kweku Adoboli said he believed his son 'made a mistake or wrongful judgement.'
Speaking from his home in Tema, Ghana, retired United Nations employee John Adoboli said the family 'were heartbroken' at the news of his son's arrest. He said: 'We are all here reading all the materials and all the things being said about him.
'The family is heartbroken because this is not our way of life. ''I brought them up to be God-fearing and to appreciate decency.'
Mr Adoboli, who was arrested at his desk on Thursday September 15, is alleged to have lost £1. 3 billion through his rogue trades.
The scandal wiped £4 billion off the value of shares in UBS, affecting thousands of pensioners whose funds had invested in the company.
The loss uncovered by UBS is almost exactly the same amount the bank was trying to save by cutting 3,500 jobs from its worldwide empire. Before he was arrested, he had changed his status on his Facebook page to 'I need a miracle'.
Mr Adoboli, who until recently lived in a £1,000-a-week loft apartment in the City, is described by friends as 'a really relaxed, happy guy'.
Yesterday Mr Adoboli wept as he was accused of gambling away a record £1.3billion. He wiped tears from his eyes as his alleged crimes at Swiss banking giant UBS were outlined in court.
The former public schoolboy, who later smiled broadly outside court, has been charged with fraud and false accounting.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2038220/Kweku-Adoboli-Swiss-bank-UBS-rogue-traders-father-speaks-court.html#ixzz1YFN7AKtI
I wish him all the best and I hope he bounces back. By the way, not everyone who earns big wants to buy a flat. It may make big sense to you. I am not a small earner but I don't think it is 'money-wise' to buy in London, besides I don't need to. Whether he has wealth anywhere else, that I don't think is up for discussion here.
ReplyDeleteI am not Ghanian, I don't know him, but I am routing for him. May he bounce back and be an inspiration to many young men and women. After all, whatever he did was in line with his loyalty to the bank.
I like what you said about gambling i.e. the loss and win thing. Maybe this is a wake up call for him, meaning that he should not allow it to destroy him but make him more aware and stronger and a better human for this world.
Ps. The further losses in the bank are not because of him - the bank is just finding an excuse. Blaming him for further losses is playing the game of those who have not only probably been in on it, or who now want to direct anger away from themselves while they do what they may have planned to do all along. Cuts were pre-planned. Where did his boss abruptly disappear to. Let us ask questions, it is not enough to let public injustice continue. After all we all make mistakes and isn't it the duty of our employers to protect and direct us rather than encouraging illegal practices to occur in the work place by attaching incentives to it?