Employee ‘judgement error’ costs Greenpeace Rs 30.6 crore

Greenpeace International said that one of its employees lost approximately Rs 30.6 crore on rogue forex trades. The non-governmental environmental organisation said the losses were “a result of a serious error of judgment” by one of its employees in the International Finance Unit in Amsterdam.

“Greenpeace International entered into contracts to buy foreign currency at a fixed exchange rate while the euro was gaining in strength. This resulted in a loss of 3.8 million euros (` 30.6 crore) euros against a range of other currencies,” the press release said.

The employee, who has not been identified, has been fired. He wasn’t a trader, though. “This is not a Wolf of Wall Street scenario with young guns, with ten computer screens,” said Mike Townsley, international director of communication, Greenpeace.”

This is a mature, sober finance professional who unfortunately... whose faulty judgment bypassed our control systems.” He said it was a third party contract that turned out unfavorable. The responsibility was with the individual, who was terminated in March of this year.