Earlier this week, WikiLeaks published thousands of cables of previously confidential government cables, leading to a broad market decline. Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks has become known for blockbuster data dumps that have humiliated top diplomats and put lives in danger. Now, he may be turning his attention to specific companies as well.
On Tuesday, after investors realized that Assange probably has a mark on Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) as his next target, shares of the Charlotte, N.C.-based banking behemoth plunged as much as 3.5%, hitting a new 52-week low of $10.91. After WikiLeaks’ latest hoorah, Forbes published an interview with Assange in which he claimed to have damning information about a large U.S. bank.
Assange did not indicate which bank, but many have widely speculated the bank in question is Bank of America, given comments he made during a 2009 interview claiming he had 5 gigabytes of data from the hard drive of a Bank of America executive and was determining how to present it in the most effective way.
Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove suggested that it may be some information about Countrywide’s lending practices, its “friends of Angelo” program that gave sweetheart mortgages to government officials or the Merrill Lynch acquisition. But all of those topics appear unlikely, given the way Assange described the information. He compared it to Enron, cited “flagrant violations, unethical practices that will be revealed” and characterized it as a window into “the ecosystem of corruption.”
What, if anything, comes of this is still yet to be seen – but, the mere speculation could zap billions of dollars in market cap from a still struggling firm so investors will be eyes wide open on this.
