Mitsubishi Corp Singapore-based entity loses $ 320 million in unauthorized trades | Money

The Mitsubishi Corporation logo appears at the entrance to the company's Tokyo headquarters ̵[ads1]1; Reuters pic

TOKYO, September 20 – Major Japanese trading house Mitsubishi Corp said today it was investigating after the Singapore-based subsidiary lost $ 320 million (RM1.3 billion) due to unauthorized trades from an employee.

In a statement, the company said the losses involved a local employee of Petro-Diamond Singapore who was hired "to handle its crude oil trade with China."

Employee "was discovered to have repeatedly been engaged in unauthorized derivative transactions and disguised them to look like hedging transactions since January of this year ", it is called.

A fall in crude prices from July resulted in "big losses" and the subsidiary began investigating workers' work in mid-August, the statement added, with PDS expecting "to record losses

Mitsubishi Corp said that the derivative position quickly became closed and investigations were carried out at the subsidiary, other group companies and internal departments involved in derivatives trading.

"These investigations confirmed that there are no such problems or risks at the moment," the company said, adding that the employee was fired and The subsidiary has filed a complaint with the police.

Oil prices were cut in 2019 and hit a peak in April before plunging later in the year, rising again following last weekend's attack on Saudi oil facilities.

There have been similar setbacks in the oil deal earlier, with Metallgesellschaft losing $ 1.2 billion in 1994, and China Aviation Oil losing $ 550 million due to a rise in prices according to Bloomberg News.

In 2007, Japanese company Mitsui shut down its oil trading operation in Singapore after a trader – imprisoned with his supervisor – lost $ 81 million in covert trades, Bloomberg added, citing last year's suspension of two top officials at Unipec after the Chinese company lost $ 656 million.

Bloomberg News contributed to this story. – AFP.