Nickel fraud bites top commodity trader with $577 million loss

Trafigura suffers a $577 million loss on nickel shipments in what the company calls a systemic fraud. The commodities trading giant discovered some of the metal cargoes it bought were missing nickel.

A full container of nickel, an expensive metal that is typically traded in large volumes, can be worth roughly $500,000.

Trafigura launched a legal action against Indian businessman Prateek Gupta and connected companies. The company, one of the world’s largest traders of energy and metals, said it found out that some cargoes it had bought did not contain the nickel they were supposed to, and spent two months uncovering the scheme.