Noble's giant writedown proves Iceberg Research right after two-year fight

(Aug 9): In early 2015, a previously unknown entity called Iceberg Research published a series of scathing reports attacking the accounting practices of Hong Kong commodity trader Noble Group.

Among Iceberg’s central accusations was that Noble had inflated the value of long-term commodity contracts and carried billions of dollars in profits on its books. The trading house would eventually be forced to write down the value of those gains, Iceberg said.

At the time, Noble dismissed the claims as the work of a disaffected ex-employee who was using the Iceberg handle to make anonymous attacks on his old company. Yet, more than two-and-a-half years later, Noble has done much of what Iceberg predicted.

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