Spain: Global Share Scam (illegal selling of shares)
14 minutes, 2003
Ref: 355

It's a new global phenomenon, made possible by technology, and Hollywood has already made a film about it. We get an exclusive inside view of the murky trade in "Boiler Rooms" worth billions of dollars in illegal share dealing. Using undercover cameras we went inside a Boiler Room in Barcelona - the new global capital for this trade - and spoke with the man who runs it. Boiler Rooms are originally a US concept - meaning hard sell call centres, not necessarily financial originally - which have undergone a globalising boom in the past 5 years, mainly in Asia. The Hollywood film - starring Ben Affleck, Vin Diesel and Giovanni Ribisi was released in the US in 2000. That is the fictional version - our piece is the first real life version.