Ex-UBS rogue trader Adoboli tries again for appeal

Former UBS trader Kweku Adoboli has re-submitted his appeal against his fraud conviction after a first attempt was rejected, court officials said.

Adoboli was convicted in November last year of two counts of fraud over unauthorised trades that cost the Swiss bank $2.3 billion in 2011. He is serving a seven-year jail sentence.

At his trial, he admitted trading far in excess of authorised limits and booking fictitious off-setting trades to hide his true risk exposure, but argued that everything he did was to make profits for UBS and was in line with bank culture.

The prosecution accused Adoboli of playing God with UBS's money in the belief that he had the magic touch, driven by a desire to be a star trader.

Adoboli filed an application to appeal against his conviction and sentence in December.

Following normal procedures, it was considered by a single judge without a hearing. Permission to appeal was refused in June, court officials said.

Defendants whose applications are rejected at the first stage have the option of re-submitting them for consideration by three judges at a hearing. That is what Adoboli has done, his lawyer Paul Lennon said.

"Kweku's appeal has gone into the inbox and he is now just waiting his turn," Lennon said, adding that he did not know when a hearing would take place.

Should Adoboli be granted permission to appeal as a result of that hearing, the case would then move on to a full appeal trial.

UBS was not a party to Adoboli's trial, which was a criminal prosecution brought against him by the British state.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)