It was reported that Mercuria Energy Trading filed a civil suit against a Turkish company regarding a copper business worth US$36 million.

Bietsan Bakir was the Turkish company that sold copper to Mercuria. After a police investigation, 14 people had been taken into custody.

About 6,700 tons of the goods were shipped in containers on eight vessels. Chinese inspectors found painted stones instead of copper for the first shipment that arrived in China.

However, Mercuria had made payment for 90% of all of the cargo shipments, and it had started a civil suit for a debt claim in Turkey for theft and fraud.