John Hughes, who co-ran a $50bn trading portfolio with Mr Adoboli, has teamed up with a professional footballer and registered BetsofMates.com at Companies House.
At the trial Mr Adoboli, who was jailed for seven years on Tuesday, was described as a reckless gambler whose losses at UBS rose to $12bn at one stage. The Ghanian-born banker racked up losses of £123,000 of his own money and resorted to taking out payday loans to risk more spread-betting.
Sentencing Mr Adoboli Mr Justice Keith told the trader: “There is a strong streak of the gambler in you. You were arrogant to think the bank’s rules for traders did not apply to you.”
Mr Hughes, who was 24 when started co-running the exchange traded funds porfolio, reported Mr Adoboli to UBS managers when he breached his trading limits in 2010. At the trial he admitted failing to report him again because he had felt bad about the first time.
He was fired for gross misconduct in January. The new website was registered in July. Fellow directors are York City footballer David McGurk and Adam Haywood, a business development manager. The company website, which is not yet live, says the idea started “as a drunken idea watching the Champions League semi-final in 2012”.
The website describes Mr Hughes as the “brains of the operation” whose “seven years in the City removed all sense of optimism from his character”. It adds: “Having worked in the City since 2005 John is all numbers and spreadsheets, numbers and spreadsheets.”
Mr Hughes told Financial News that the site would be a “socially responsible platform for football betting” that would “leverage off friends in the football industry”, reports The Telegraph.
