SEC accuses UAE citizen of insider dealing

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has named a citizen of the United Arab Emirates in connection with alleged insider dealing, the second such charge of a Gulf national in the past week.

The SEC complaint, filed in Manhattan on Monday, accuses Khaled Mohammed Sharif Al Sayed Al Hashemi of Abu Dhabi of buying 120,000 shares in Nova Chemicals, a petrochemical producer, in February in the run-up to a takeover. Nova was eventually acquired by International Petroleum Investment Company, an Abu Dhabi state investment vehicle, for $2.3bn on 6 July.

The SEC alleges that Mr Hashemi used an online brokerage account to buy Nova stock at $1.41 per share. On 23 February, the day of the takeover announcement, he sold the shares for an average of $5.24 per share, making $458,760 in profits, the SEC alleges.