Do you remember Boone? “Speculator” will sue Portugal
Peter Boone was accused of conspiring to reduce the value of the Portuguese debt; after seven years, he was able to confirm his innocence. The "speculator" will now counter-attack the State.
Boone, Peter Boone. He became known in 2010, along with with Simon Johnson, former IMF chief-economist, when he published a series of blog posts anticipating Portugal’s problems. He “predicted” a bailout request, which the Portuguese Government strongly denied — although it ended up happening. Peter Boone became a suspect of attempting to manipulate the Portuguese public debt, which led to an investigation that went on to become a formal accusation against him. But Boone ended up cleared from any blame and seven years later, his innocence is finally proved. Now, it is the “speculator” who will go after the Portuguese State.
A total of 820 thousand euros were earned with the short sale of Portuguese public debt, which made the Portuguese Securities Market Commission (CMVM) warn the Public Prosecutor. The Portuguese market regulator suspected Peter Boone used his blog posts to influence the price of Portuguese bonds, leading to a plunge in those securities value — which, therefore, caused Portuguese debt interests to rocket in the markets. After one of those articles was written, ten-year interest rates took off from close to 4.5% to more than 6%. Click here to read Boone’s article anticipating the Portuguese bailout, in 2010.
I am very happy and relieved that the Court of Appeal reached this conclusion. This process should never have existed. It was a witch hunt that began with a public statement from the former Finance minister, Teixeira dos Santos, who was offended that I questioned some of his bad economic decisions that he and his peers were making.
The Public Prosecutor moved forward with an accusation against Boone on October 16, 2015. Since it was thought he was related to the hedge fund Salute Capital, the Prosecutor charged the economist doctorate from Harvard University and other investors of the crime of market manipulation. Boone was heard by a judge and the Court decided to not prosecute. The Public Prosecutor appealed, but on June 21, 2017, three judges from the Court of Appeal confirmed their decision. On July 12 of this year, the decision became a matter adjudged: Boone is innocent.
“I am very happy and relieved that the Court of Appeal reached this conclusion. This process should never have existed. It was a witch hunt that began with a public statement from the former Finance minister, Teixeira dos Santos, who was offended that I questioned some of his bad economic decisions that he and his peers were making”, Boone states, in a press release.
Watch Peter Boone speak of Europe’s problems in 2011
“While I am relieved that courts were able to look beyond this façade, I am deeply disappointed that it lasted so long”, adds the economist who is now preparing to sue the Portuguese State for the “highly incompetent and negligent investigation headed by CMVM and the Public Prosecutor”.
Boone will also consider the possibility of “filling for lawsuits against the authors of two CMVM reports which omitted information proving his innocence and integrity, while it fabricating false conspiracy accusations, which were reflected in the criminal accusation”.
