Greenpeace International has acknowledged losing $5.2 million on a bet the euro would not strengthen against other currencies in 2013 — but it did.
The environmental group said the money was lost by an employee who acted beyond the limits of his authority but had hoped to benefit the organization.
Greenpeace did not identify the employee, who has been fired, and added there was no evidence of fraud.
The four-decades-old nonprofit apologized to supporters and donors for the blunder and said it was studying what went wrong.
“We are obviously very embarrassed and we are apologetic,” Mike Clark, interim executive director of Greenpeace USA, said. “Mistakes do happen and we will make sure something like this will not happen again.”
It said it would absorb the loss over a period of several years by trimming “infrastructure investments.”
The group will conduct an independent audit and pledged not to reduce spending on campaigns to protect the environment.