Mitsubishi recorded a $320 million loss through unauthorized trades of crude oil derivatives disguised as hedges.
The trades were made through Mitsubishi’s Singapore-based oil unit, Petro-Diamond Singapore (PDS), according to a «Reuters» report, and were discovered only after the trader allegedly responsible did not return from holidays in August.
«[The PDS employee] was discovered to have been repeatedly engaging in unauthorized derivatives transactions and disguising them to look like hedge transactions since January of this year,» according to a statement from Mitsubishi, which added that this was the first loss of its kind ever in the firm’s history. «[W]e are now examining the total amount of losses.»
The positions originally opened by the PDS worker, who was responsible for crude oil trades for China, have been closed and the matter has been reported to police in Singapore.
