• Norwegian Airlines rejects for the moment an IAG that will "review" its options to incorporate the 'low cost'

The Central Court of Instruction number 4 of the National Court investigates alleged irregularities in a stock market operation based on the announcement in the media of a takeover bid (OPA) of the International Airlines Group (IAG) holding company, in which Iberia is, towards Norwegian Airlines. Specifically, it has accepted a lawsuit filed against the financial adviser Pablo de Castro Luis for a crime of stock market manipulation and another of abuse of privileged information from various economic operations, including that related to the airline.

The complaint, filed by the businessman Gustavo Pérez-Carballo Villar, considers that the financial adviser carried out "fraud and machinations that have seriously altered the price of shares of Spanish and European companies listed on the stock exchange", such as allegedly explaining to a journalist from the media specialized in economic information Bloomberg, the operation of the takeover bid of Iberia and before publishing buy shares, to later sell them when the news was known.

After admitting the complaint, the judge, José Luis Calama, ordered the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) the documentation on investigations or files about the activity on the stock market of the accused adviser in case it is related to these crimes. The complaint, to which this medium has had access, points out that several bodies that regulate the markets, such as the CNMV or the US Securities and Exchange of the United States, observed between 2017 and 2018 "clearly suspicious" stock operations due to their high profitability, sophistication or high amount, in addition to resembling similar cases in other countries on the use of privileged information.

Faced with these suspicions, as from a takeover bid for the energy company Saeta Yield, the then head of the Market Surveillance Unit, Carlos Sánchez Vilar, cited the defendant in 2019 "by observing a pattern in all its operations" as it was supposed to operate with "insider information" to manipulate the stock market. Specifically, it is indicated that the financial advisor acquired shares hours before a Bloomberg journalist published news about a certain company "and sold them immediately afterwards, often obtaining enormous capital gains."

The businessman who filed the complaint, represented by the lawyer Pablo Rúa and the attorney Francisco J. Agudo, appeared at the CNMV to present evidence on the links between the financial advisor and the journalist, since the former assured that they did not know each other. Thus, he delivered to the CNMV, and then to the court, documents, such as photographs, of that relationship and of the existence of alleged payments to the informant.

He also explains in the complaint another suspicious operation in which the "same pattern" was used. Specifically, the one that affected IAG, the former Iberia, with Norwegian, and in which there were capital gains of 742,287 euros, which exceeds the limit of 600,000 euros to stop being an administrative sanction and become a crime of privileged information with which to obtain benefits. unusual through investments in the financial markets. The complaint filed by businessman Gustavo Pérez-Carballo Villar, which is being investigated by the court, maintains that IAG's takeover bid for the Norwegian company "was previously studied by other airlines and had access to confidential information" and that a senior position in an airline company is « close friend of the defendant. That is why he suspects that "allegedly he provided the information." That's why he suspects that "allegedly provided him with the information.

The complaint highlights that with these confidential data the financial adviser allegedly contacted the journalist and before publishing the news about the stock market operation he acquired "a huge number of shares" since when the information was known they would rise "like foam". It also indicates that when "Bloomberg publishes relevant information about any listed company, the information penetrates the market and the main market operators launch massive purchase orders, so much so that currently the algorithms immediately execute the operation without the need for a human. , which is known as high-frequency trading".

The news was known on April 12, 2018 and that day Norwegian's price rose 47%. The complaint indicates that the investigated financial adviser acknowledged having bought, through a rural savings bank, 104,000 titles on April 11 and selling them the next day for 742,287 euros, in addition to operating with other brokers, associates and figureheads.

It also points out that "superior international organizations" are aware that "it actually obtained capital gains of several million euros", about 13, causing "enormous damage to other investors" and "seriously" affecting the price of the Norwegian airline.

Now the court is waiting to receive the requested information to see where the investigation initiated into alleged irregularities in these operations continues, to find out if there are more involved in obtaining these millionaire capital gains.

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