The employee "was discovered to have been repeatedly engaging in unauthorised derivatives transactions and disguising them to look like hedge transactions since January of this year", it said. A fall in crude prices from July resulted in "large losses", and the subsidiary began investigating the employee's work in mid-August, the statement added, with PDS expecting "to book a loss of approximately $320 million".
Mitsubishi Corp said the derivatives position was quickly closed and investigations were carried out at the subsidiary, other group companies and in-house departments involved in derivatives trading. "These investigations confirmed that there are no such problems or risks at present," the firm said, adding that the employee has been fired and the subsidiary has filed a complaint with police.