SEC settles Kuwaiti case
A US regulator has reached a $6.5m (£4.1m) settlement of civil insider trading charges relating to hoax takeover news allegedly issued last year by a Kuwaiti financier who later committed suicide.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Hazem Al-Braikan, who was chief executive of a company in which Citigroup held a 10 per cent stake, reaped illegal profits after misleading the public and media about possible takeover bids for stereo maker Harman International Industries and corporate jet builder Textron.
The commission said Al-Braikan traded in accounts held in his own name, in his company Al Raya Investment, and for himself and others at the Kuwaiti brokerage Kipco Asset Management. Citigroup held a 10 per cent stake in Al-Raya.
Al-Braikan was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in July.