A collective of ‘TOWIE traders’ based on a rural Essex business park took home up to $660million (£487m) in one day when the price of oil collapsed below zero during lockdown and are now facing a class action in the US, it was revealed today.
Nine staff at Vega Capital London, including three traders aged between 22 and 31, made between $30million and $100million each on April 20 from their tiny office in West Horndon near Brentwood when the price of a barrel of oil became negative.
Legal claims have been filed in America against the British traders, including three nicknamed Cuddles, Ari and Dog – but the extraordinary $660million day of trading at Vega Capital London during the first national lockdown only emerged today.
Vega, a small oil trading outfit in a small office next door to a couriers business, a car parts firm and a locksmiths, made lucrative trades on the assumption the price of oil would collapse to record lows.
The business, run by Paul Commins, a former boss at the International Petroleum Exchange [IPE], insists they have done nothing wrong and acted on a ‘blaring’ market signal.
Mr Commins, nicknamed ‘Cuddles’ by friends, is described as having a Cockney accent from a Guy Ritchie movie and was lampooned so much by colleagues because he pronounces ‘three’ as ‘fwee’ his IPE trading badge said ‘F-W-E’ for years.
Oil traders based on this rural Essex business park took home up to $660million (£487m) in one day, it was claimed today
On April 20, 2020, three traders in their twenties or early thirties, made $100million each. Another colleague made $90million and Mr Commins, 52, allegedly made $30million, with the remaining $240million going to four traders affiliated with the business, according to Bloomberg.
Traders working with Mr Commins include his son George, in his early twenties, and Chris Roase, a friend and trading veteran the boss knew from his City days who has the nickname ‘dog’.
Other Vega staff are said to include Elliot Pickering, a ‘skinny, awkward-looking’ 25 year-old who lives with his mum and drives a Rolls-Royce convertible’, according to Bloomberg, and Connor Younger, 22, the son of a builder.
One of the men said to have made $100million is reportedly 31-year-old Aristos ‘Ari’ Demetriou, who according to various publications may have joined Vega after he met one of the traders while he worked pushing trolleys in a supermarket and asked how he could afford such a nice car.
Away from work the group, who are self-employed, are said to spend time together watching their beloved West Ham United, playing golf or taking their families to Marbella in Spain, the resort beloved by TOWIE’s stars.
Today it was revealed that businesses in the US have filed a class action claiming they were ‘deprived of a lawful market’ by Vega traders.
The case was started by Mish International Monetary, a cash, precious metals and jewellery dealership who claim Vega traders had worked to ‘intentionally manipulate’ the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures contracts, losing them $92,490.
Mish International Monetary believe at least 12 traders ‘aggressively’ sold these future contracts ‘for the purpose of depressing the price’ all because they had ‘a large financial incentive’ to lower the oil price, the court filing says.
It is alleged the Vega traders all grabbed ‘trading at settlement’ contracts allowing them to buy oil in May, at April 20 prices.
Because the price became negative on April 20, instead of having to pay for the oil – they were paid for the contracts instead, making a fortune.
A British lawyer employed for a number of Vega traders told The Times: ‘Each of our clients regularly puts his own money at risk to try to make a profit. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
‘On April 20 blaring market signals, including the exchange’s repeated warnings that prices could go negative, led market participants ranging from small proprietary traders to large financial institutions to trade on the assumption that prices would drop. And while no one could have predicted just how far they’d drop, each of our clients, like many others around the world, traded on his own view of the market.’
Vega’s US legal team has urged a judge to throw out the case.
Their legal response says the class action has ‘ignored the obvious explanation for the price volatility: the existence of the global pandemic, its effects on the demand for oil, the oversupply of oil, the lack of storage space … the stay-at-home orders mandated by governments around the world, the loss of jobs suffered as a result of the pandemic, and the grave uncertainty that the world faced as it was in the midst of grappling with Covid-19’.
The traders, including three nicknamed ‘cuddles’, ‘dog’ and ‘Ari’, bet heavily on the price of oil dropping because of Covid-19
Last month it emerged that a key Senate Democrat, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, had urged US regulators to look at Vega’s trades and consider if oil markets are susceptible to manipulation.
Brentwood entrepreneur Russell Quirk told MailOnline: ‘Essex remains the entrepreneurial capital of the UK. Some will of course critique the ‘Oil Oiks’ for such a brazen profit. Me? I think their ingenuity and bravery should be applauded and is an inspiration to future would-be wealth creators’.