Nice example of a white collar crime with a huge economic cost –

Former public school boy Kweku Adoboli, son of a former Ghanaian official to the United Nations, appeared in court today on two charges of false accounting and two counts of fraud while working for Swiss investment bank UBS.  The total estimated losses due to his alleged criminal activity stand at £1.5 billion.

Compare this to the cost of the UK riots – estimates range from £100 million – although figures might be higher, they are unlikely to be anywhere near the £1.5 billion that Kweku managed to gamble away.

Of course, keep in mind that these comparisons might be unfair as they don’t tell us about the human cost.

Whether you think the comparisons fair or not, it’ll be worth keeping an eye on how Kweku’s trial progresses – but you’ll have to wait ’til October, oddly enough, it doesn’t look like his trial is being fast tracked like the underlcass rioting teenagers.