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The Modern Mann

Playback: The Two Billion Dollar Man

The Modern Mann

Matt Hill

Relationships, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.8753 Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In his 20s, yet running a $50billion book, Kweku Adoboli had worked his way up the trading floor at the very point the market crashed. His actions wiped £2.7bn from the UBS share price, prompted the resignation of their chief executive - and got him a seven-year jail sentence for fraud. In this remarkable interview with Olly, he reveals a corporate culture of ‘wilful blindness’, explains how he fell foul of the UK’s hostile environment policy for migrants - and re-lives the moment he realised that, having taken responsibility for his actions, he would forever be known as Britain’s biggest ‘rogue trader’... This episode first aired in February 2018. Now remastered and with an update from Olly, we've paired this episode with Priscilla Coleman's interview on Drawn To Justice, released this month. Listen now! Image Credit Priscilla Coleman/MB Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, I'm Olly Mann and it's the last Friday of the month, so it's time for our playback edition,

0:06.5

another chance to hear a classic interview from the Modern Man archives. And with our 10th birthday

0:12.4

just around the corner, I wanted to choose one of my favorites this month. It's a chat that I think

0:18.6

about a lot. It's from 2018, my interview with Quaku

0:23.3

Adaboli, whom the internet will callously summarise for you as a deported rogue trader

0:31.1

responsible for an historic $2.3 billion loss from a major investment bank. But as always, I think, with our best stories,

0:42.2

there's more to it than that. There's a story behind the story. And I think seven years on,

0:47.2

this conversation holds up. It's enlightening about city culture and how crime on that scale

0:53.3

was perhaps tolerated.

0:55.9

And although I was criticized at the time for platforming Kweku and being sympathetic,

1:02.8

I'm really proud of this conversation.

1:04.9

It's the only major podcast interview he's ever done.

1:07.5

He's a great talker and there's a beautiful bit of sound design from producer Matt

1:11.2

in here as well. So if you've never heard it, it's worth a listen. If you have, it's worth hearing

1:15.5

again, particularly, I think, with the current focus on migrants who commit crimes. And there's

1:21.6

a link to our most recent interview as well. The courtroom artist Priscilla Coleman, of course,

1:27.1

had the opportunity to sketch Kweku when he was in the dock in 2011 at Southwark Court. You can see her picture now in the cover art to this episode. And if you haven't heard that interview yet, drawn to justice. Please do after listening to this. What a companion piece.

1:43.5

The $2 billion man. That's this month's Modern Man playback. And it all starts next.

2:08.0

Why a business Why are businesses like Hello Vet choosing Apple products and services?

2:10.5

So we started the business two years ago.

2:16.0

We had a few people who were used to PCs and this was their first foray into Macs.

2:19.3

But it's been super smooth getting everyone onto those devices and everyone seems really, really happy.

...

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