Gupta will file defence in Trafigura nickel fraud case by July 12

LONDON (Reuters) -Lawyers for Indian businessman Prateek Gupta and his firms will file their defence in a legal case with commodity trader Trafigura by the court deadline on July 12, Gupta's spokesman said on Friday.

The businessman is still on track to provide a robust response, the spokesman said, to allegations by Geneva-based Trafigura that Gupta and seven companies that Trafigura said are controlled by him carried out "systematic fraud" over nickel cargoes.

The ongoing case has become a major scandal in the nickel market, which is yet to fully recover from the crisis caused by a chaotic spike in nickel prices in March 2022. It also prompted property and metals tycoons the Reuben brothers to seek their own damages from Trafigura.

In court papers submitted previously, Trafigura had said it began to suspect in October last year that around 25,000 metric tons of metal sold by Gupta's firms may not be high-grade nickel, and started inspecting more than 1,000 shipping containers.

Trafigura told the judge that some of the first containers inspected were found to contain carbon steel, worth a fraction of the price of nickel.

Gupta's representatives in June filed documents asking a London court to lift a $625 million global freezing order on him and his companies, imposed at Trafigura's request in February.

Trafigura's metals division booked a 590-million impairment in its October-March financial results in connection with this case.

(Reporting by Polina Devitt; editing by David Evans and Louise Heavens)