Sumitomo Copper Affair
The Sumitomo Copper Affair or Yasuo Hamanaka Copper Market Scheme was a metal trading scandal that happened between 1986 and 1996, when the scandal was discovered. Sumitomo Corp. was a Japanese trading house and its chief copper trader was Yasuo Hamanaka. For a decade, he speculated on copper contracts without authorization. In the beginning, it was a way to make back losses quickly, but it became a massive fraudulent campaign which involved false commercial justification in addition to fake accounting of non-existent physical copper stores. Hamanaka was in prison for eight years because of corruption.
Sumitomo Copper Affair
The St. Francis Dam Disaster
Categorized as a “catastrophic” dam failure, the Francis Dam Disaster in 1928 did not only kill more than 400 people but also swept away several miles of fertile farmland. At the time, William Mulholland was the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power Chief Engineer, and he lost his career due to the collapse. The Mulholland Dam had no contraction joints and cracks started to form. The engineer himself inspected the cracks but said they were not cause for worry. At 11:57 P.M. on March 12, 1928 he was proven wrong as 12.4 billion gallons of water flooded through the area and killed any eyewitnesses.
The St. Francis Dam Disaster
