KUWAIT CITY // A 30-year-old Kuwaiti financier accused of making trades related to hoax takeover news in the US was found shot dead Sunday. Hazem Khalid al Braikan, the chief executive of Kuwait's Al Raya Investment, was found dead at his home south of Kuwait City just three days after being named in court documents filed by the US market regulator. Police sources said Mr al Braikan had probably committed suicide, local media reported. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that he and his company, along with two other firms, reaped millions of dollars in profits from trading around hoax offers to acquire US companies, according to an enforcement action filed in the US District Court on Thursday. The SEC last week obtained an emergency court order to freeze more than US$5 million (Dh18.34m) in trading profits in various accounts under their names. Citigroup took a 10 per cent stake in Al Raya Investment last year. The two other companies named in the SEC court documents are Kuwait's KIPCO Asset Management Company (KAMCO) and the United Gulf Bank in Bahrain, where Mr al Braikan worked until last year, according to Bloomberg information. "Hazem Khalid al Braikan and the related entities traded around false news of a purported tender offer by a Middle East investment group to acquire Harman International Industries Inc at $49.50 per share," the SEC said in its complaint. A phoney press release was faxed to media outlets on July 20, before the stock market opened. It sent Harman International Industries stock 40 per cent higher in pre-market trading, according to the US market regulator. The SEC also claims that two of the parties traded around a bogus tender offer in April, when a Kuwaiti newspaper reported a consortium of Middle East investors planned to buy Textron - an offer that also turned out to be false. They then sold their securities at prices inflated by the false information to reap their illicit profits, the court document alleges. The SEC claims that Mr al Braikan was associated with each of the three companies named in the claim and traded in an account in his own name. KAMCO and United Gulf Bank said in separate regulatory filings yesterday, in response to the lawsuit, that they had acted on behalf of their clients and were not in violation of market rules. "Such a regulatory action is not uncommon when regulators suspect an irregularity in trades on stock exchanges," KAMCO said in a statement on its website yesterday. "The transactions mentioned in the SEC litigation release were undertaken by KAMCO under specific instructions of its client in normal course of business." United Gulf Bank also said it had placed the positions on a client's behalf and didn't profit, in a statement posted on the Kuwaiti bourse Sunday. The bank said it had adhered to all banking regulations regarding the management of client accounts. "It's very sad news," Mohammed Yasin, the chief executive of Shuaa Securities, told Reuters. "This crisis has seen a lot of people in the Gulf and across the world fall from grace, and each person is different in terms of their ability to handle pressure." An investigation into the death is underway but no further details were available, a police official told The National Sunday. Al Raya Investment was not available for comment. * additional reporting by Sarmad Khan in Dubai jcalderwood@thenational.ae skhan@thenational.ae .
