Hazem Khalid al-Braikan, Kuwaiti Businessman Charged With Fraud by the SEC, Reportedly Commits Suicide

Hazem Khalid al-Braikan, a Kuwaiti businessman linked to Citigroup and who has been charged in the United States with fraud, has committed suicide. He was reportedly found dead in his bed with a gunshot wound to the head and a handgun by his side. What is rather interesting about this latest turn of events is the fact that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged al-Braikan, the CEO of Al-Raya Investment Co., last week with scheming to make millions by manipulating the stock of certain U.S. companies. The SEC said it was freezing more than $5 million in profits it believes were made off questionable deals by al-Braikan and three companies  he was associated with. It is also interesting to note that his company is 10-percent owned by Citigroup Inc.

The SEC said al-Braikan's company as well as two other companies – the United Gulf Bank and KIPCO Asset Management Co. – traded shares based on two phony announcements. One announcement faxed to media outlets July 19 and subsequently reported on the Internet the following day stated that a Middle Eastern investment group made an offer to acquire Stamford, Connecticut-based electronic systems maker Harman International Industries Inc.

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." Source: Huffington Post

Some may say that this man was murdered or others will say he killed himself because the noose was literally tightening around his neck. He could have just been terribly beaten at his shady and unscrupulous game.