DISHONEST PRACTICES IN KUWAIT

Hello,

The financial crisis that has engulfed the world has already striken down well known names like Madoff and Stanford.

Not learning the lesson young Hazem Khalid Al-Braikan, a 37 year old Kuwaiti financier and CEO of Kuwait's Al-Raya Investment Company is alleged to have gone ahead and amassed wealth in excess of US$ 5 million from well-timed trades in the two US firms. (The charges are under investigation)

Harman shares briefly soared after several media outlets reported that a private investment firm called Arabian Peninsula Group planned to buy it at almost double its market price. The incident was similar to a phony offer for Textron in April from a United Arab Emirates-Kuwait consortium. Harman was forced to issue a statement last Monday denying it had been approached by a mysterious Gulf investor known as the Arabian Peninsula Group following a number of media reports. The company's shares tumbled sharply once the hoax was revealed.

In April, rumors and a report in a Kuwaiti newspaper that a consortium of Middle East companies was offering to buy Textron Inc. sent shares of the Providence, Rhode Island company soaring more than 50 percent in a single day. No deal for the manufacturer of Bell helicopters, Cessna jets and turf-maintenance equipment emerged, and shares plunged a few days later.

The SEC said Al-Braikan and the others "amassed positions in the one or both of the securities of the companies shortly before the bogus offers were publicized." They then sold their securities at "prices inflated by the false information to reap their illicit profits

Charges were filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 23 and a couple of days later Al-Braikan was lying dead in his room with a Colt gun in his hand and a bullet hole above his right ear.

"Suicide is unlikely," said Al-Braikan's friend who commented on online newspaper Al-Aan which reported the incident. The blogger, who remained anonymous, claimed to be Al-Braikan's close friend, indicating the deceased "was religious and rational and did not miss a prayer. He was sure of his innocence and had hired an American lawyer to follow up his case. Suicide is out of the question."

Braikan was the chief executive of Al Raya Investment, which is 10 percent owned by Citigroup Inc.

Reached by Reuters on July 25, the day before his death, Braikan declined to comment on the case."I have nothing to say. It is in the hands of the lawyers now."Hours later, he issued a statement saying he had named a US attorney to defend him, declaring: "I would like to confirm on the soundness of my legal situation."

Other defendants include Al Raya, United Gulf Bank & KAMCO, firms affiliated with senior members of Kuwait's ruling al-Sabah family and is the biggest investment firm by assets in Kuwait. They have already refuted having made any gain from trading in the shares of Harman and Textron.


Easy come Easy Go.

Be honest do not cheat,
Manoj