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Update (6:05 p.m. EDT): After the BBC's reassurance that it "carried out detailed investigations" into the background of trader Alessio Rastani, The Telegraph reported on Tuesday evening that it had also looked into Rastani's background and found he wasn't much of a trader. "He is a business owner, a 99pc shareholder in public speaking venture Santoro Projects. Its most recent accounts show cash in the bank of £985. After four years trading net assets are £10,048 -- in the red," wrote reporter Jonathan Russell. "How a man who has never been authorised by the Financial Services Authority and has no discernible history working for a City institution ended up being interviewed by the BBC remains a mystery." So while he's technically a trader, in that he trades stocks and currency on the open market, he's not exactly the expert insider speaking truth to power that many lauded him as on Tuesday. As Rastani told Russell, "I'm an attention seeker."
Original: On Monday, a London-based independent stock and foreign exchange trader shocked the BBC and all those watching when he said he "dreams of another recession" because he knows how to make money when the markets plummet. The trader, Alessio Rastani, predicted savings accounts wiped out in Europe and the United States and said he didn't think EU bailout measures would work. "Governments don't run the world," he said. "Goldman Sachs rules the world." If you think that sounds like something straight out of the Yes Men pranksters, you're not alone. But on Tuesday Morning he told Forbes he was the real deal, and later on Tuesday both BBC and the Yes Men confirmed he was legitimate. God help us all.