Singapore tycoon Oei Hong Leong is suing Goldman Sachs International over losses he made trading currencies.
He claims claimed Goldman Sachs International misled him into making currency trades that ended up costing him more than ¥3 billion (SGD 38 million)
- The trades were in yen against the Brazilian real
- Instigated a short yen / long real on May 15
- By June 13 he’d met 6 margin calls to top us his account
- Closed out of the trades in June 17 with the loss
Mr. Oei’s court document said he had relied on claims by Goldman Sachs senior director Mats Dewitte when they met in Singapore before he started trading – statements which later turned out to be false. According to Mr. Oei, Mr. Dewitte had said that the real was anchored to the US dollar in the same way that the Hong Kong dollar is pegged to the greenback. Mr. Oei also alleges that Goldman Sachs contravened part of the Securities and Futures Act.
Took him 6 margin calls to figure out something wasn’t quite right? I see …
Tycoon Oei Hong Leong Sues Goldman Sachs International over SGD 38 Million Loss
and more here:
Mr Oei was also supposedly told that real-yen trades were liquid and could be executed any time, and that they behaved very similarly to US dollar-yen trades. But the statements were false, Mr Oei said; the real was not anchored to the US dollar, and the real was much less liquid than the greenback. This meant that the real-yen trades were more difficult and costly to unwind compared to US dollar-yen trades.
