Soccer team bus bomb suspect arrested

A man was arrested this weekend in Germany on suspicion of bombing soccer team Borussia Dortmund’s bus in an elaborate financial scam.

The dual German and Russian national (28), named only as Sergei W, is believed to have carried out the attack to make a profit by selling shares in the team.

He had bought options on Borussia Dortmund stock and hoped to make a profit as the share price fell in the wake of the attack, prosecutors said.

Sergei W stood to make as much as €3.9m if key Borussia Dortmund players had been killed or critically injured, according to German press reports.

“The man appears to have wanted to commit murder out of greed,” said Ralf Jager, the state interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Spanish defender Marc Bartra was injured in the attack on April 11 and had emergency surgery on his hand. Prosecutors said more serious bloodshed was avoided because Sergei W had made an error in placing the explosives, which he detonated by remote control.

They claimed Sergei W stayed at the same hotel as the Borussia Dortmund players and traded shares over the internet from the venue, leaving a trail of evidence.

Hotel staff yesterday said Sergei W behaved suspiciously after the attack, showing no shock and ordering a meal in the restaurant.

He had earlier demanded his room be changed to one facing the car park, which meant he had a clear view of the bus and could set off the explosives as it passed.

On the day of the attack, he bought 15,000 put options — contracts giving him the right to sell Borussia Dortmund shares at a set price.

“If the shares of Borussia Dortmund had fallen massively, the profit would have been several times the initial investment,” the prosecutor’s office said.

But Sergei W took out a €79,000 loan to buy the put options and bankers found the loan so suspicious they alerted police, who traced the transaction to the IP address of the hotel where the players were staying.

Sergei W appeared to have planned the attack well in advance, booking hotel rooms for two separate dates before it was clear when the match would be played.

He allegedly planted three sets of explosives along the bus’s path, triggering them individually by remote control. Three letters were found near the site claiming responsibility by Isil, but police believe they were forged by Sergei W to deflect attention from himself.