The attack on the German football team turned out to be a “financial attack”.
German prosecutors say the man responsible for last week's bomb attack on the bus carrying the Borussia Dortmund football team had bought options to short sell 15,000 shares of the club's stock before the attack, hoping to make a profit from the attack if share prices were to fall as a result.
A 28-year-old German-Russian citizen has been charged with attempted murder, causing an explosion and aggravated battery and severe bodily harm.
The suspect, who was arrested near the southwestern German city of Tuebingen, was staying at the Dortmund team hotel on the day of the attack, according to a statement released by the prosecutor's office.
Prosecutors said that shares in the club could have dropped significantly if a player had been seriously injured or killed in the attack. And that was exactly what the attacker wanted to happen.
Three explosive devices shattered windows and injured a player on the bus last Tuesday evening local time as the German squad was on the wat to its home Champions League match against AS Monaco. The game was postponed to the next day.
The devices, which were hidden behind a hedge, contained pieces of metal and had a reach of 100 meters, the federal prosecutor's office said.
Based on the type of detonator and explosive involved, German authorities had assumed "terrorist involvement," spokeswoman Frauke Koehler said at the time.
