huridocs-tech E-mailer Arrested for Banking Panic

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## author     : dgrammen@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
## date       : 02.07.99
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ASSOCIATED PRESS

Thursday, 1 July 1999

                E-mailer Arrested for Banking Panic
                -----------------------------------

BOGOTA -- A man who fired off a series of e-mails asserting
the financial instability of a bank -- triggering a run on
the institution -- was arrested for creating financial
panic, authorities said Wednesday.

Jose Omar Olaya, 24, allegedly sent numerous messages from a
Hotmail e-mail account on May 27 to private individuals and
employees of Davivienda Bank urging all account holders to
withdraw their funds in light of a pending government
intervention.

Olaya's e-mail campaign caused a flood of second- and
third-hand e-mails, exponentially spreading the
misinformation, authorities said.

Panicked account holders withdrew $11.4 million from the
bank in a single day, forcing the government to lend
Davivienda some reserves.

``It is the first case of inciting economic panic via the
Internet in Colombian history,'' said Tulio Gomez, chief of
the special unit on electronic information of the state
security agency, or DAS.

Olaya's alleged actions broke a law against inciting
economic panic and are punishable by up to eight years in
jail, said Gomez.

Olaya was arrested Wednesday at his home in the Pacific port
of Buenaventura.




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