Ex-Mossad agent said among suspects in 420m pound fraud

The Spanish police announced Wednesday that they had arrested six people suspected of a £420 million fraud in a public company traded on the AIM exchange in London. No names were released, but the newspaper El Pais reported that among those arrested is a former Mossad agent, Avraham Hochman, whom the newspaper described as the one of the "brains" behind the fraud.

The suspects are accused of false reporting and forging company documents, for the purpose of boosting the share price of Langbar, a Bermuda-registered company traded on the AIM.

Langbar, formerly called Crown Corp., was a shell company on the AIM, floated in 2003 with reported assets of £202 million.

In July 2005, Langbar announced a number of financial transactions, including a deposit of £70 million in ABN Amro and Banco Di Brasil, causing its own share price to soar. After the firm's market cap doubled, some directors hurried to sell their shares at a hefty profit.

The British police began an investigation of Langbar in 2005, and trade of its shares on the AIM was halted after the company was unable to prove that the deposits had indeed been made.

Langbar explained that the company itself had fallen victim to a fraud. Haaretz