The Sumitomo copper affair refers to a metal trading scandal in 1995 involving Yasuo Hamanaka, the chief copper trader of the Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corporation. Hamanaka had allegedly attempted to corner the entire world's copper market.
Sumitomo lost at least $1.8 billion as a result of what it said were unauthorized trades over a 10-year period by Hamanaka, who was later charged on allegations that he manipulated the price of the metal, which then lost a third of its value on world markets in less than two months.
The affair was a major scandal which is at times compared in magnitude to the Silver Thursday scandal involving the Hunt family's attempt to corner the world's silver markets. It currently ranks in the top 5 trading losses in financial history.
See also
Sources
- Copper Scandal
- How Copper Came a Cropper
- Tarnished Copper
- May 11, 1998 statement by the CFTC settling the affair
- Modern Market Manipulation, a 2003 presentation by Mike Riess
 |
This economics or finance-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
