Sina US Stock News Bloomberg reported in the early morning of the 20th Beijing time that Red Kite Management Ltd., the world's largest metal hedge fund, sued Barclays, claiming that Barclays lost at least 850 million US dollars in the copper market between 2010 and 2013.

The bank sued by the $2 billion hedge fund has been hit by a series of scandals in recent years, including being fined heavily for manipulating Libor.

One of the co-founders of Red Kite is a former treasurer of the British Conservative Party. According to court documents submitted by Red Kite to the High Court of England, the hedge fund accuses Barclays of condoning employees to share confidential information about Red Kite's positions with the bank's proprietary traders on the London Metal Exchange.

According to court documents, Barclays traders used this to reverse trade and profit from it. The relevant documents were submitted to court in October 2016, but were only made public recently. Red Kite claims that Barclays “attempted to manipulate the London Metal Exchange by 'raising' prices” and manipulated the closing price, which is widely viewed as a benchmark by traders.

In another filing, Barclays denied all allegations, saying it did not mishandle Red Kite's confidential information.

Barclays and Red Kite declined further comment when contacted by Bloomberg News. A spokesman for the London Metal Exchange declined to comment on the ongoing legal action, but said the exchange “has strict rules on market manipulation and abuse” and that “any violator will be subject to disciplinary action.”