Central to the problems of Metallgesellschaft, a German conglomerate now facing bankruptcy, are losses of up to DM2.3 billion at its American subsidiary, MG Corp. The conglomerate's bosses claim not to have known what risks MG was running in its oil-trading operations. The Frankfurt prosecutor's office announced on January 10, 1994, that it would investigate the conglomerate's former chairman and its former finance director for fraud and for misleading the supervisory board.