David Frankel

Alm's attorney, David Frankel, do not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

The case stems from a scandal that rocked the world copper market in 1996, based on trades that occurred as much as 10 years beforehand.

Yasuo Hamanaka, a former Sumitomo star trader who has been convicted of fraud and forgery by a Japanese court, caused $ 2.6 billion in losses in unauthorized copper trading over a decade after cornering as much as 5 percent of the market.When the losses were exposed in 1996, copper prices plunged.

According to traders, Hamanaka's activities kept the price of copper high on the New York and London commodity futures markets in 1995 and 1996.