Bin Laden Sold Reinsurance Stocks Short 4 Days Prior:
Japan investigates possible profiteering by bin Laden
freerepublic.com
Regulator looks into short selling
By Kathryn Leger
National Post
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Japan's securities regulators confirmed yesterday they are investigating whether Osama bin Laden made huge profits by trading in stock before and after this week's disaster.
The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission is focusing its investigation on trading in futures contracts and a speculative transaction called short selling, Japan's Jiji Press reported.
"There must have been transactions to buy back shares within a few days of the attacks," Jiji quoted a high-level commission official as saying.
In addition to possible trades on the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges, bin Laden may have made big money by trading futures contracts in European stock and foreign exchange markets, the news agency said.
Investors buying into the futures market bet on movement of stocks, stock indexes or commodity prices at a given time and earn a profit if they end up in the right direction.
People knowing in advance of the suicide airliner missions against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon could have speculated on large drops in stocks or stock indexes.
Stock prices in Tokyo fell 6.6% to fall through the 10,000 point level on Wednesday for the first time in 17 years.
Profiting from a disaster is not itself a crime. Anyone with electronic trading capacity could have pressed a button within seconds of witnessing the bombing and made money on markets plunging. Insider trading -- making trades with inside information -- is illegal.
The problem securities regulators, in Japan or elsewhere, would face is in obtaining the identity of those behind any trades, said John Coffey, a Colombia University professor who specializes in corporate and securities law.
"You have real-life cases of accounts registered in a Lebanese bank through a partnership in Lichtenstein making trades in Italy," Mr. Coffey said.
Bin Laden's wealth is estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars and he is believed to funnel millions more to militant Islamist groups worldwide. He presides over an empire of legitimate and illegitimate businesses. Many are held through a complicated web of bank accounts and shell companies registered in offshore locations, a Washington-based analyst told the National Post.
If insider trading is suspected, securities commissions in many countries can seize what is in the investing account at the brokerage.
Officials at Japan's SESC could not be reached because of the time difference with North America.
John Hiney, a spokesman for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said he could neither confirm nor deny whether the regulator was looking at unusual trading in futures or working with Japanese or European counterparts on any terrorist connections.
Officials at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency also would not comment on their efforts to track bin Laden's money flow through securities transactions.
"All agencies are part of this investigation and anything related to bin Laden is being investigated," said one special agent of the U.S. Department of Treasury, which oversees financial markets and operates the Office of Foreign Asset Control. |
