JPMorgan Chase thought it had $1.3 million worth of nickel stored in a warehouse. A closer examination revealed bags of stones. Story by lvaranasi@insider.com (Lakshmi Varanasi) • Monday Turns out that JPMorgan's bags of nickel are actually bags of stones. Roman Mykhalchuk/Getty Images© Roman Mykhalchuk/Getty Images JPMorgan Chase kept bags of stones in a warehouse thinking they were nickel, according to the WSJ. The London Metal Exchange revealed Friday that the bags contained stones instead of nickel. The owner of the bags is JPMorgan Chase, according to the Journal. The London Metal Exchange revealed a surprising mix-up last week at a warehouse in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. An operator for the warehouse weighed bags that were thought to contain 54 metric tons of nickel, only to find that they were filled with stones, according to The Wall Street Journal. It appears that JPMorgan Chase is the unlucky owner of those bags, the Journal said on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. Had they contained nickel, the bags would have been worth $1.3 million at current prices, representing 0.14% of nickel inventories, Bloomberg reported. While that means the mix-up will have a relatively minor impact on metal markets, it does call the security of the LME's contracts into question. "In an industry riddled with scandals, the LME's contracts are viewed as unquestionably safe," Bloomberg said. [img aria-hidden="true" width="2965" height="2224" quality="75" attribution="REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni" title="A fugitive billionaire just auctioned off $3.2 million worth of luxury handbags — see highlights from his prized collection" caption=" Billionaire Joseph Lau sold $3.2 million worth of luxury handbags at a Sotheby's auction. The Hong Kong mogul has been a fugitive since 2014, when he was convicted of bribery and money laundering. Lau is a prolific collector who's purchased roughly 1,500 Hermès bags, Bloomberg reported. A Hong Kong billionaire just sold $3.2 million worth of Hermès and Chanel handbags at auction. The auction, hosted by Sotheby's, included 77 handbags from the collection of Joseph Lau, a property developer worth roughly $6 billion, Full screen 1 of 7 Photos in Gallery©REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni A fugitive billionaire just auctioned off $3.2 million worth of luxury handbags — see highlights from his prized collection Billionaire Joseph Lau sold $3.2 million worth of luxury handbags at a Sotheby's auction. The Hong Kong mogul has been a fugitive since 2014, when he was convicted of bribery and money laundering. Lau is a prolific collector who's purchased roughly 1,500 Hermès bags, Bloomberg reported. A Hong Kong billionaire just sold $3.2 million worth of Hermès and Chanel handbags at auction. The auction, hosted by Sotheby's, included 77 handbags from the collection of Joseph Lau, a property developer worth roughly $6 billion, according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. Titled "the Visionary Collection of Joseph Lau," the auction was part one of a two-part event, the second of which will take place in July, according to Sotheby's. The collection included one Chanel bag and 76 Hermès bags, including both the iconic Birkin and Kelly styles. The highest bid went to a "Bleu Jean" crocodile Birkin bag produced in 2006, which features 18K white gold and diamond hardware — the bag sold for 1.52 million HKD, or about $194,000, according to Sotheby's website. Other top sellers included a rose mini Kelly bag and another blue crocodile Birkin, both of which sold for 1,206,500 Hong Kong dollars, or about $154,000. Collections of luxury handbags like Lau's could be a smart investment, as their volatility is low and returns could reach mid-single-digits, according to a 2022 Credit Suisse study. And Lau is a prolific handbag collector: He's purchased over 1,500 Hermès bags as gifts over the years, and his family still owns more than 1,000, a representative for Lau told Bloomberg. Lau's collection includes several bags designed by legendary designer Jean-Paul Gaultier, who served as creative director for Hermès from 2004 to 2010. The bags produced during Gaultier's tenure are "highly coveted," according to Sotheby's. Lau's collection extends beyond handbags to diamonds — including a $53 million 12-carat blue diamond — and art by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bloomberg reported. In 2014, Lau was convicted of money laundering and bribery by a Macau court and sentenced to five years in prison, but he's avoided serving time by avoiding travel to the island, which doesn't have an extradition pact with Hong Kong. Lau has auctioned off other pieces in his collection over the years, including $20 million worth of art and fine wine. Take a look at some of the top sellers from Lau's most recent auction: The LME first announced the mix-up last Friday but didn't disclose the owner of the bags or the warehouse where they were kept, according to The Wall Street Journal. However, people familiar with the matter said the warehouse was owned and operated by Access World, according to the Journal. A spokesperson for the logistics firms told Insider that "Access World confirms it is currently undertaking inspections of warranted bags of nickel briquettes at all locations and will engage external surveyors to assist. In the meantime based on internal stock checks all information indicates that the underlying issue which led to the suspension of the 9 warrants referenced in LME notice 23/044 is an isolated case and specific to one warehouse in Rotterdam." It's likely that Access World is going to bear the financial burden for the mix-up rather than JPMorgan Chase, the Journal said, because it was the company's responsibility to protect the stores of metal in its facilities. JPMorgan Chase bought the bags years ago and remains an active player in big metals, the Journal said. JPMorgan Chase and the LME also did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Old outdated news. Are they putting effort to catch the thieves ?!?!? This should be a very easy-to-solve mystery. But it has been months / years and there is no news about who are the thieves. Why this case is fishy is not how people managed to change Nickel to stone but why no one knows who are the thieves.
It is not old news. Fake receipts are fairly common occurrences. BUSINESS NEWS FEBRUARY 13, 20173:58 AMUPDATED 6 YEARS AGO Fake receipts at Glencore warehouse unit triggered sector credit freeze, Qingdao shivers - sources By Melanie Burton 5 MIN READ MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Some global banks briefly froze credit lines for Singapore metal traders last month after a unit of commodities giant Glencore GLEN.L uncovered fake warehousing receipts, people familiar with the matter said, reviving the spectre of a $3 billion (2 billion pound) scandal that rocked the trading world three years ago. FILE PHOTO - The logo of commodities trader Glencore is pictured in front of the company's headquarters in Baar, Switzerland, September 30, 2015. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann/File Photo Though the impact has proved limited so far, the “forged” receipts for nickel stocks that Glencore’s Access World unit said it found still set alarm bells ringing - even though regulation and scrutiny have been tightened across the business since the 2014 Qingdao port scandal in China. Two people who have metal storage dealings with Access World said the company told them the receipts were from a third party, not issued internally. At Qingdao, a firm allegedly duplicated notes pledging metal as collateral for multiple bank loans. “We checked with (Access World) and all our stock was in good order,” said one of the people, an official at a Singapore trading house. But the firm did have its credit lines temporarily frozen by several banks while they investigated, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Metals traders told Reuters that a raft of international banks involved in providing finance to the sector, including Australia's ANZ ANZ.AX, France's Natixis CNAT.PA and Rabobank of the Netherlands, temporarily froze some credit lines before for the most part resuming business. Natixis declined to comment. Rabobank said it was aware of the news on forged warehouse certificates circulating in the name of Access World, and was “assessing the situation,” but could not comment further. ANZ said that its “warehouse commodity financing was a small business within (the bank’s) institutional division with only a handful of customers”, and declined to comment further. In its statement disclosing the incident, Access World said it had become aware of “forged warehouse receipts” and urged holders of its warehouse receipts to authenticate them. Last week it said it would provide authentication for clients’ certificates on Feb. 10-15, after which it would honour “duly authenticated original warehouse receipts”. The warehouse receipts concerned applied to stockpiles in Singapore, people said. Reuters was unable to confirm the volumes involved, nor whether finance had been advanced against them, or which, if any other locations were affected. Glencore itself declined to comment. FROM GREEN TO AMBER The late January disclosure led to a frenzy of phone calls among trading houses and banks - and the cancellation of holidays over the Lunar New Year period - as warehousers combed through their stock to make sure all was in order. “There’s a lot of ‘calm panic’ out there,” said an executive at another trading company in Singapore, speaking on condition of anonymity. At the time the news broke, he said, people were asking, “(What if) It’s internal fraud at a warehouse company?” But the fallout appears to have been limited, partly because the type of alleged fraud attempted was via a third party. “It’s not systemic like the one in Qingdao,” said one banker familiar with the matter, who declined to be identified because he wasn’t authorised to discuss the matter. Banks and trading houses have tightened procedures around collateral financing since Qingdao, particularly around limiting transfers of titles to metal. The London Metal Exchange - the largest base metals exchange - set up a global inventory monitoring chain known as LMEShield for private stocks held outside its warehousing network, where rent is cheaper, but security is also lower. Tighter scrutiny notwithstanding, the January incident left the metals trading business on edge and, for some, on hold. “Our first reaction was, ‘Not another one! This isn’t China, it’s Singapore and (Malaysia’s) Johor’,” said an official at one Western Bank active in financing metal, who declined to be identified. “We were on green, we are now on amber. Until we know exactly what happened and how was it done, we wouldn’t be financing this name (Access World),” said the banker, who warehouses his metal with a competitor. Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
I give up counting how many times nickel has been changed into stone. It will happen again and again and again and again..... No one can catch the thieves. Next nickel to stone story please.