Wall Street in Somalia

[Turbineguy]

Piracy Syndicates Feed Off Ransom Income, Navy Chief Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-21/piracy-syndicates-feed-off-ransom-income-u-s-navy-chief-says.html

Piracy syndicates are selling shares in planned attacks, fueled by a surge of ransom payments that help attract investors, the U.S. Chief of Naval Operations said.

Piracy syndicates in villages, mainly in largely ungoverned Somalia, solicit investors who buy shares in the attack missions and gain a corresponding share of ransoms paid by the shipping industry, Admiral Gary Roughead said.

“The ransoms fuel the business, the business invests in more capability, either in a bigger boat, more weapons, better electronic-detection means to determine where the ships are,” Roughead said in an interview in Bloomberg’s Washington Bureau today. “So it’s a business.”