"Defendants effectively operated in a tag-team fashion--rotating in the roles of prime broker, clearing agent or counterparty that enabled the short sale transaction to go forward without the expectation of delivery, " the complaint says.

FORBES: Naked Shorts

Norman Brown, a local estate agent, owns some prime sites in town, but has been unable to raise his rents for nine years.

ECONOMIST: The north-north divide

In January, Craig Williams, executive director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group based in Berea, Kentucky, insisted that the arsenal's stockpile was a prime candidate for neutralisation, a process planned for bulk chemical-agent stockpiles at the sites in Maryland and Indiana.

ECONOMIST: Pine Bluff prepares for disposal