Paul Murphy and Patrick Donovan in London
GOLDMAN SACHS, one of the world’s most powerful investment banks, has been secretly “unwinding” the huge holdings of copper owned by Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation in the wake of this year’s market-rigging scandal on the London Metal Exchange (LME).
The American bank was handed in June what is perhaps the most sensitive job in the history of metals trading, when the Japanese conglomerate admitted that allegedly unauthorised trades by its chief metals dealer, Yasuo Hamanaka, had run up huge losses.
But the assignment – involving the disposal of copper worth more than $2-billion – seems to have led Goldman into direct conflict with regulators and police agencies, on both sides of the Atlantic, who are investigating Hamanaka’s dealings. While there is no suggestion of impropriety at the investment bank, it has emerged that Goldman has had to instruct lawyers in relation to business carried out by its Aaron commodities dealing arm.
At issue seems to be the complex web of trading relationships between Hamanaka and a dozen or more metals brokers in London and New York.
One metals market expert suggested: “Goldman will know who Hamanaka dealt with and on what terms. If Sumitomo are proving reluctant to part with such information, Goldman may present an alternative source.”
In Britain, the Securities and Investments Board and the Serious Fraud Office are examining the affair while, in the US, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission and the FBI are carrying out their own investigations.
In June, Sumitomo said Hamanaka’s dealings over 10 years had cost it $1,8-billion and last month the losses forecast were revised upwards to $2,6-billion. When the scandal broke, the Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS), Sumitomo’s banker, and Swiss Bank Corporation (SBC) stepped in to guarantee the Japanese group’s liabilities.
News that Goldman, rather than UBS or SBC, has been selling the metal for Sumitomo will come as a jolt to the fragile LME, where speculation over the size of Sumitomo’s residual holdings has led to violent swings in the price of copper over recent weeks.
Sources with a close knowledge of Sumitomo’s positions insist Goldman has completely unwound the copper stockpile. But rival traders dismiss this.
Last week, the American metals speculator Herbie Black said Sumitomo’s “long” position in copper might still extend to 500 000 tons, worth $1-billion, and that the Japanese group’s losses could eventually reach $4-billion.