The Fake Sheikh is back in town…

… and we’re not talking the News of the World’s fancy dress enthusiast Mazher Mahmood.

Yesterday afternoon news organisations the world over received a fax (yes, a fax, remember those?) from an organisation called Arabian Peninsula Group announcing a $49.50 bid for US car stereo-maker and Essex boy-racer staple Harman International.

Now, an S&P 500 company with a $1.7bn market cap being subject to a near-100 per cent premium hostile offer is a big story, certainly big enough for Bloomberg to flash the news. But Bloomberg appear to have pulled their story yesterday after checking the facts and realising something wasn’t quite right.