Feb 14 (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc stopped financing
nickel deals for commodity trader Trafigura with companies
linked to Indian businessman Prateek Gupta on Oct. 27, Bloomberg
News reported, citing a court filing.
Trafigura last week said it booked a $577 million charge in
the first half of 2023 after discovering that some nickel
cargoes it received did not contain the metal in a case of
"systematic fraud".
Citi's move had prompted the commodity trader to send
inspectors to check containers that were supposed to ship the
metal, Bloomberg News reported late on Monday, adding that it
was not clear what led the U.S. bank to pull financing.
Trafigura has said the fraud was committed by a group of
companies connected to and controlled by Gupta, including TMT
Metals and companies owned by Gupta's UD Trading Group.
Trafigura had already sold about $100 million of such
cargoes, the report said.
Trafigura declined to comment. Citi and UD Trading Group did
not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirsten
Donovan)
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