In a landmark case, Oei Hong Leong, the man with the Midas touch, is suing Citigroup for negligence and mispresentation over his loss of $1 billion (!) due to trades in foreign exchange and US Treasury bonds.
Oei Hong Leong claimed that Citigroup gave him inaccurate and inconsistent reports on his trading positions, leading him to take on bigger positions than he would have done.
When he realised the extent of his positions, he had no choice but to close all of them during a very volatile time in October last year.
While Mr Oei had correctly predicted the economic downturn as early back as 2007, it seems he has been badly caught on the wrong side of foreign currencies.
It is unclear how much of a dent the $1 billion loss would have made on his net worth. Mr Oei commented that he had planned last year to set aside $1 billion for charity. That plan has now obviously been delayed.
Now we also know that Forbes’s estimate of US$210 for Oei Hong Leong’s networth last year is way off the mark.