Osama rigged oil, gold prices, says bank chief

LONDON, SEPT. 23. The Saudi dissident, Osama bin Laden, is believed to have made a massive profit from trading in oil and gold as well as shares on the eve of the suicide attacks in the U.S. blamed on his followers, a leading banker has said.

Mr. Ernst Welteke, president of the Bundes Bank, said financial investigators have found strong indications of suspicious dealings in gold and oil, as well as unusual movements in airline and insurance shares, in the days before the September 11 attacks in the U.S.

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph today, it appeared that terrorist leaders capitalised on their ``insider knowledge'' of the planned atrocities to invest in oil and gold, knowing that the prices would rise after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Strange stock market fluctuations have already been identified, the report said.

European Union Finance Ministers, meeting in Liege, Belgium, ordered national regulators to investigate the alleged market manipulations.

Mr. Gordon Brown, British Chancellor, said ``financial institutions in every part of the world should be under an obligation to report suspicious transactions where terrorist money could be in use''.

- PTI

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Section  : International
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