By GUY CHAZAN

US regulators lawsuit over alleged manipulation of crude-oil prices in 2008 has shone a spotlight on a shipping tycoon whose risky bets, shrewd investments and buccaneering style have made him Norways richest man.

John Fredriksen owns the trading companies at the center of a civil action brought this past week by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The case brings fresh scrutiny to a businessman with the reputation of a maverick, business interests ranging from oil rigs to fish farms, and an estimated net worth of 6.2 billion, or $10.2 billion, that put him at No. 7 in a recent Sunday Times list of richest UK residents.

The CFTC sued two traders and the companies they worked for, Arcadia Energy (Suisse) SA and its Parnon Energy Inc. affiliate, alleging that in 2008 they amassed and sold off a substantial position in physical crude oil to manipulate future prices. The companies are controlled by Mr. Fredriksens Farahead Holdings, of Cyprus.

Mr. Fredriksen declined a request for comment. In an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Nringsliv he dismissed the charges, saying Its what happens in an oil marketbuying and selling oil. We have done nothing wrong. In a statement, Arcadia said the CFTCs complaint was without merit and that it was confident no laws were broken.

The son of a shipyard welder, Mr. Fredriksen was born in a working-class suburb of Oslo in 1944. He started off as a shipping broker, running cargoes of fish from Iceland to Hamburg, Germany. In the late 1960s he moved to Beirut, where he shipped crude oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, sending back refined products. He bought his first ship in 1973.

Tags : Commodity
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