>>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.<<
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