‘Expert’ financial trader predicting market collapse has no car or home

AN “expert” financial trader in London who caused a storm of outrage by suggesting that world leaders cannot do anything to prevent a global market collapse, has no car and lives in a €230,000 home owned by his girlfriend.

Alessio Rastani’s comments on BBC, including saying that investment bank Goldman Sachs ruled the world, went viral and fit so closely to the stereotype of a heartless banker that rumours were rife he is actually part of a hoax.

Yesterday, Rastani went as far as to say he treated trading as just a hobby.

Some media reports have suggested Rastani is a member of The Yes Men, a US-based protest group who claimed responsibility for a bogus report in 2004 on the BBC that Dow Chemical would compensate victims of the Bhopal disaster.

In an interview with Forbes website, he denied he bore any resemblance to the fictitious Dow spokesman who orchestrated that hoax and insisted he was a genuine trader who worked for himself.

The BBC also stood by him, saying it had carried out “detailed investigations” but could find no evidence to suggest Rastani was not what he claimed.

Answering questions about world leaders’ response to the eurozone debt crisis, the 34-year-old said traders “know the stock market is finished. The euro, as far as they’re concerned, they don’t really care”.

“For most traders, we don’t really care that much how they’re going to fix the economy, how they’re going to fix the whole situation — our job is to make money from it,” he said.

“Personally I’ve been dreaming of this moment for three years. I have a confession ... I go to bed every night, I dream of another recession.”

As the BBC presenter looked on in shock, he added: “The governments don’t rule the world. Goldman Sachs rules the world. Goldman Sachs does not care about this rescue package, neither does the big funds.”

The remarks by Rastani caused a storm on Twitter and in newspapers, and prompted Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado to brand him “mad and immoral”. Asked about his warning that millions of people’s savings could vanish in the next year, Salgado said this was not the case as savings were guaranteed across Europe.

Other commentators speculated that Rastani was simply expressing views in public that were privately held by many.