Mitsubishi loses US$90mil in metal fraud

Huge impact: A person rides a bicycle in front of the Tokyo Stock Exchange building. While the scale of Mitsubishi’s loss is considerably smaller than others in a string of similar cases, it has nonetheless rattled the huge but conservative Japanese trading house. — AP

TOKYO: Mitsubishi Corp has suffered a loss of more than US$90mil in China after uncovering suspected fraud by one of its copper traders, according to people familiar with the matter.

The 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.