The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has
fined a former UBS wealth management client adviser £150,000
($233,000) and banned him from working in the UK financial services
industry.

Between 2006 and 2008, the UK regulator said
Jaspreet Singh Ahuja used a pre-existing investment structure to
enable a client to breach Indian law in clear contravention of UBS
guidelines. This client invested more than $250m in the fund.

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UBS deceived

Ahuja then concealed the nature of this
investment from UBS and also assisted in making unauthorised
redemption payments out of the fund, knowing that the redemptions
were not properly sanctioned by the client.

As previously reported by PBI, the
FSA is also currently locked in a tribunal case against two other
ex-UBS wealth management employees, Sachin Karpe and Laila
Karan.

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Karpe and Karan are accused of serious
misconduct centered around unauthorised trades on customer accounts
between 2006 and 2007.

 

Exploited client trust

The FSA’s acting director of enforcement and
financial crime, Tracey McDermott, said that Ahuja had exploited a
position of trust.

In November 2009 the FSA fined UBS £8m for
systems and controls failures in connection to the case against
Ahuja, Karpe and Karan.

UBS has since repaid affected customers more
than $42m in compensation.

Commenting on the case, UBS said it has
already acknowledged there were weaknesses in certain aspects of WM
UK’s control environment.

In a statement, UBS said: “WM UK has already
paid a significant financial penalty to the FSA in respect of those
control weaknesses. UBS had identified the weaknesses before the
regulatory action was taken, and had remediated them by June 2009,
as was confirmed by an independent accountancy firm.”