In October, Trafigura Group said it was facing a US$1.1 billion hit in Mongolia involving suspected wrongdoing by its own employees. While the scale of Mitsubishi’s loss is considerably smaller, it has nonetheless sent a chill through the huge but conservative Japanese trading house.
Mitsubishi has suffered a loss of more than US$90 million ($121.08 million) in China after uncovering suspected fraud by one of its copper traders, according to people familiar with the matter.
The loss is the latest in a string of recent cases of alleged wrongdoing to hit a major commodity trading house, highlighting the risk that individual traders who handle billions of dollars in commodities may seek to enrich themselves at the expense of their own companies.
