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CIA PROBE: MILLIONS OF SHARES SOLD ON EVE OF DISASTER; DID BIN LADEN
PULL OFF THE SICKEST SHARE DEAL EVER?
DAILY MAIL
09/18/01
The CIA has asked the City regulators in London to investigate
suspicious sales of millions of shares before last Tuesday's attacks
in America in the belief that the paper trail will lead to the
terrorists.
MORE
Osama Bin Laden could have pulled off a sick financial coup shortly
before the attacks that devastated America.
Britain's City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, has
launched an inquiry into unusual share price movements in London
before last week's atrocities.
Other investigations have been launched in the U.S., Germany, Japan
and Italy. The authorities fear that the Saudi-born multi-
millionaire's followers might have used a technique known as 'short
selling' shares in commodities such as insurance companies, airlines
and tourism which they knew would plunge after the attack.
Short selling involves borrowing shares from a broker, then selling
them.
You use the money raised to buy the shares when the price has gone
down, give them to the broker and pocket the difference.
So if you sold a million shares at GBP 8 each, and they then went
down to GBP 5, you could make a quick GBP 3million less the broker's
fees and commission.
'It would be a particularly ghoulish kind of insider dealing,' said
one source.
'But if we find anyone profiteering out of the tragedy it could be a
good lead for the investigation into exactly who is responsible.'
The authorities are also looking for any unusual buying activity in
sectors likely to go up, such as building or arms manufacturers.
Germany's security watchdog has launched an inquiry into 'suspect'
share price movements in the run-up to the atrocities.
It is expected to home in on Munich Re, the world's biggest
reinsurer, which lost 13 per cent of its value in the week before the
attacks.
Fellow reinsurer Swiss Re and the French insurance giant Axa also
suffered price falls before the outrage.
In cases of widespread short selling, the brokers start to follow the
trend to cover themselves and this can force the market down.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said: 'We are going to track
down every terrorist and confiscate their money wherever it is in the
world.
'And I think we'll have the co-operation of every financial
institution in every civilised society.
'We're going to shut these people down.'
A similar investigation is under way in Japan, where it is believed
to be focusing on dealings in futures contracts.
In the futures market, investors bet on the future price of shares or
commodities and can make enormous gains if their gambles prove
correct.
Bin Laden comes from a wealthy Saudi business family and is believed
to have financial tentacles reaching across the globe.
He is reported to have used a Milan brokerage to invest in European
stock markets.
The Swiss authorities are also looking closely at his links with
their country's notoriously secretive banking system.
END
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