Oei Hong Leong, the former chairman of China Strategic Holdings and one of the richest men in Asia according to Forbes, has filed a lawsuit against Goldman Sachs International for allegedly misleading him into making a trade that eventually cost him millions of dollars, media reports show.

Oei's lawsuit is related to a currency bet he made on 15 May 2013 thinking that the Japanese yen would fall against the Brazilian real. He claimed that he made such a move after speaking to Goldman Sachs senior director Mats Dewitte, who allegedly told him at a meetup in Singapore that the real was anchored to the US dollar the same way as the Hong Kong dollar. Oei also claimed that he was told that real-yen trades were liquid and executable at any time. 

On 17 June, Oei closed the trade and while he received ¥1.055 billion as premiums, he suffered a loss of ¥3.175 billion ($32 million), the sum he is currently claiming. Instead of going down, the yen rose against the real, leading him to make six margin calls on 13 June to keep his position open. According to Oei, Dewitte's statements were "reckless" and "done with the intention and purpose of inducing [Oie] to trade in leveraged foreign exchange trading."

A spokesman for Goldman Sachs has since responded to the media saying that "the lawsuit is without merit" and that they intend to fight it. 

This is not the first time Oei sued a financial giant for misrepresentation. In 2009, the tycoon filed a lawsuit against Citigroup's private banking arm after he lost around S$1 billion on foreign exchange and US Treasury bond deals in 2008. This was settled out of court.