Japan’s biggest trading house on Friday said it expected Petro-Diamond to book the losses after discovering an unidentified trader “repeatedly” engaged in unauthorised crude derivative deals since January, disguising them as hedging transactions. The loss is equivalent to about 6% of Mitsubishi’s projected profit for the year.
(Sept 25): The Chinese trader fired by Mitsubishi Corp. for allegedly losing US$320 million ($441 million) in oil trading said he was acting on his managers’ orders and there were no unauthorised transactions, according to his lawyer.
The losses at Mitsubishi’s unit Petro-Diamond Singapore resulted from “premature” settlement of the derivatives positions by the company, said Joseph Chen, the Singapore-based lawyer for the trader, Wang Xingchen. “Our client takes the position that he had not engaged in unauthorised trades in crude oil derivatives,” Chen said in a statement.
