Ex-employee sues UBS for unfair dismissal after mispricing securities

A former trader at UBS has taken his ex-employers to the Employment Tribunal after he was dismissed last year for certain trades that he made.

Ramon Braga, a trader in securities on the bank’s corporate credit desk in London, submitted his complaint for unfair dismissal to the Employment Tribunal after he was fired for colluding with Denis Minayev in “re-marking” the value of credit default swaps (“CDS’s”).

Mr Braga is claiming that the dismissal was unfair as he was thrown in “at the deep end” in his role at UBS. He further alleges that he wasn’t aware of the changes that Minayev made and believed that his actions were authorised by his line manager.

UBS in return has stated that they undertook an investigation into the incident and concluded that Mr Braga’s actions constituted gross misconduct. UBS’s position is that Mr Braga was not authorised to undertake the actions that he did and that he attempted to cover up his “re-markings” by asking a broker friend to send him a quote that justified the changes that he made to the valuation of the CDS’s. While Minayev and Braga were supposed to exchange information, they were not supposed to consult each other on the pricing of the financial derivatives.

If you’ve been unfairly dismissed or think that you might have a potential claim for unfair dismissal please get in contact with one of our specialist employment lawyers.