Kweku Adoboli is on borrowed time in the U.K.: the convicted UBS rogue trader’s friends are mounting a hail-Mary push to prevent his imminent ouster to Ghana.
One-time UBS trader Kweku Adoboli, who spent more than three years in a British prison for a $2 billion rogue trading hit, has exhausted his legal options to remain in the U.K.
«Please help me fight imminent detention and deportation from my home of 26 years. This could happen as soon as tomorrow,» Adoboli, a native of Ghana, wrote in a £10,000 crowd-funding campaign to pay his legal costs (the fund-raising goal was already exceeded on Monday).
Banker Turned Child-Minder
Adoboli lives with friends in Edinburgh and helps with the childcare of two of his godchildren. He has spoken frequently about improving culture in banking. He argues that the circumstances which led to his crime still persist in investment banking today.
The erstwhile banker has also spent a good part of his time fighting his deportation to a country he left with his family – his father was a UN peacekeeper – at the age of four. His deportation would mean he is effectively barred from the U.S. and Europe, including the U.K.
«Being banished from your friends, family, community, country and the West is by far the worst punishment that can be enforced upon someone,» Adoboli told the «Financial Times» (behind paywall). His 2012 sentencing revoked his permanent residency status in Britain.
Legal Wrangle
Adoboli could be picked up as soon as Monday, when he is due to check in with Britain’s Home Office. His supporters argue that officials at the authority intentionally issued the deportation order now in order to short-circuit potential appeals.
Adoboli said the British government has demanded a response within seven days, but that his lawyer is on leave until early September – cutting off his chances to block the move.
