By Paul Sonne in London and Deborah Ball

Kweku Adoboli, the UBS AG traderaccused ³ of making unauthorized transactions that cost the lender as much as $2.3 billion, pleaded not guilty in London to fraud and false accounting, clearing ⁴ the way for an autumn trial that could ⁵ prove embarrassing for Switzerland's largest bank.

Last September, UBS disclosed that a trader on its London-based equities deskhad conducted unauthorized trades that caused the bank $2.3 billion in losses. U.K. authorities arrested Mr. Adoboli and charged him with two counts each of fraud and false accounting, but the former trader entered a plea only on Monday.

He remains in police custody.

UBS fired Mr. Adoboli soon after discovering the losses.

A trial is scheduled to start ⁶ Sept. 3. According to sentencing guidelines for England and Wales, fraud and false accounting carry maximum penalties of 10 and seven years in prison, respectively.

A trial could complicate UBS's efforts to draw a line under an affair that resulted in the resignation last fall of Chief Executive Oswald Grübel and forced the bank to hurriedly appoint his successor. Sergio Ermotti, who joined UBS only last April, became CEO in the fall.

A trial could involve the disclosure of uncomfortable details regarding the shortcomings in UBS's management and risk-control procedures that allegedly allowed Mr. Adoboli to run up such large losses without detection. Though UBS has alleged that wrongful activity occurred in the months immediately before Mr. Adoboli's arrest in mid-September, U.K. prosecutors have charged Mr. Adoboli with false accounting that dates as far back as 2008.

The bank already has completed its own internal inquiry, but has declined to make its finding public in order to avoid compromising the ongoing London case.

Mr. Adoboli could still change his plea to guilty, thus avoiding a trial, which is otherwise expected ⁷ to last a number of weeks. If the case does go to trial, prosecutors could introduce evidence or make further accusations regarding how the trader managed to execute the false trades.

The U.K. Financial Services Authority ⁸ and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority ⁹ are conducting their own joint probe.

The scandal also forced the departure last fall of the two global heads of UBS's equities business, as well as the group's chief risk officer. The bank has disciplined a number of other, unnamed managers in risk-control and finance functions.

The trading losses sped up a revamp of UBS's investment bank. Mr. Ermotti announced plans in November to cut many of the unit's activities in order to refocus the bank on its more stable wealth-management business ¹⁰, the world's third-largest.

Notes:

1) UBS= a Swiss global financial services company headquartered in Basel and Zürich, Switzerland, which provides investment banking, asset management, and wealth management services for private, corporate, and institutional clients worldwide, as well as retail clients in Switzerland. It operates in more than 40 countries and considered as the world's second largest manager of private wealth assets. UBS operates in all of the major financial centers worldwide with offices in over 50 countries and 64,000 employees around the world. UBS traces its heritage to 1854 and it is the largest bank in Switzerland. UBS was originally an abbreviation for the Union Bank of Switzerland, one of its predecessors; however, UBS ceased to be considered a representational abbreviation after its 1998 merger with Swiss Bank Corporation.

2), 5) См. Учебник “Экономический английский”, стр. 406 “Модальные глаголы (“could”)”

3), 4) См. Учебник “Экономический английский”, стр. 413 “Причастие”

6), 7) См. Учебник “Экономический английский”, стр. 408 “Инфинитивные конструкции”

8) the UK Financial Services Authority=Управление по финансовому регулированию и надзору Великобритании=независимый неправительственный орган; осуществляет регулирование и надзор за деятельностью всех инвестиционных, финансовых и банковских компаний, осуществляющих деятельность на территории Великобритании

9) Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority= Швейцарская служба по надзору за финансовыми рынками

10) wealth management=a professional service which is the combination of financial/investment advice, accounting/tax services, and legal/estate planning for one fee=управление состоянием=комплекс услуг частного банковского обслуживания, охватывающий все аспекты финансовой жизни наиболее обеспеченных лиц-клиентов частного банка (финансовое планирование, инвестиционные консультации (инвестиции в финансовые инструменты и альтернативные инвестиции), управление инвестиционным портфелем, налоговое планирование и подготовка налоговой отчетности, планирование операций с недвижимостью, пенсионное планирование и планирование наследования, текущая юридическая поддержка).