Yasuo Hamanaka

is a man who formerly was the chief copper trader at Sumitomo Corporation- one of the largest trading companies in Japan - and was also known as "Mr. Copper" because of his aggressive trading style and "Mr. Five Percent" because that is how much of the world's yearly supply he controlled. [ [http://www.time.com/time/international/1996/960624/japan.html 6/24/96 INT/BILLION DOLLAR LOSER ] ]

On June 13, 1996, Sumitomo Corporation reported a loss of 1.8 billion dollars in unauthorized copper trading by Hamanaka on the London Metal Exchange.

In September 1996, Sumitomo disclosed that the company's financial losses were much higher at 2.6 billion dollars (285 billion yen).

Considering the size of the losses and the fact that they were accumulated over more than ten years, many believe that Hamanaka could not have been able to the copper market without some kind of knowledge or authorization from his supervisors.

Hamanaka was sentenced to eight years in prison in 1998 and was released in July 2005, one year early.

ee also

*List of trading losses

References

External links

* [http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/copper.html Paul Krugman's article about Hamanaka's losses]