The banker who was running the CIA on 9/11.
A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard built the brokerage through which the largest cluster of pre-9/11 airline put options was routed. On the day of the attacks he was the third-ranking official at the Central Intelligence Agency. Both facts are documented. Neither proves the other.
This is the hardest discipline test on the site, because it's a magnet for the worst kind of reasoning. So we'll be exact: the strange trading before 9/11 is real and peer-reviewed; Krongard's path from Wall Street to the CIA is real; the government's investigation was closed quietly and buried for eight years. We carry all of that as fact. We do not claim Krongard traded on foreknowledge, or that he knew — the SEC says the biggest bet was a hedge fund's, and we put that up front. What's left is a question the investigators never put on the record.
What this page argues
In the trading days before September 11, 2001, someone placed enormous, one-directional bets that specific airlines and specific Wall Street firms would crash. United and American Airlines saw put-option volume at dozens to hundreds of times normal; three independent peer-reviewed studies later found the activity “consistent with informed investors having traded options in advance of the attacks.” The largest single cluster of United puts was routed through Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown — the U.S. private-client firm built by A.B. “Buzzy” Krongard, who by then had left banking to become, six months before the attacks, the Executive Director of the CIA.
The Securities and Exchange Commission investigated, concluded it found no evidence that anyone with advance knowledge had traded, and traced 95% of the United puts to a single U.S. hedge fund making a bearish sector bet. Then it classified the report, fought the release for eight years, and — its own watchdog found — destroyed the underlying case files. We hold two things at once: the documented facts, graded hard, and the absence of proof for the sinister reading. What we won't do is pretend the question isn't there.
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The banker who was running the CIA on 9/11.
Buzzy Krongard built the brokerage through which the largest cluster of pre-9/11 airline puts was routed. That day, he was the CIA's #3. Both are documented. Neither proves the other.
The record, claim by claim
The pre-9/11 put-option anomaly is real, and three peer-reviewed studies found it consistent with informed trading.
FACTOn Sept. 6, 2001, United Airlines (UAL) put volume jumped from 27 contracts the prior day to roughly 2,000 — a put-to-call ratio near 105 to 1. On Sept. 10, American Airlines (AMR) saw 4,516 puts against 748 calls, later calculated at ~285 times normal. Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch — both headquartered at or near the towers — saw similar spikes. Allen Poteshman (Journal of Business, 2006) placed the airline put activity in the 99th percentile of history; Chesney, Crameri & Mancini (Journal of Empirical Finance, 2015) identified at least 13 instances of abnormal trading after controlling for hedging; a third team found an abnormal S&P/VIX spike. The anomaly is not fringe — it is in the peer-reviewed literature.
- CBS News, 'Profiting From Disaster?' (Sept. 19, 2001); The Independent, 'Mystery of terror insider dealers' (Oct. 14, 2001); Poteshman (Journal of Business, 2006); Chesney, Crameri & Mancini (Journal of Empirical Finance, 2015); Wong, Thompson & Tian on S&P 500 index options
Krongard went from chairman of Alex. Brown to Executive Director of the CIA — six months before the attacks.
FACTA.B. 'Buzzy' Krongard became CEO of the storied Baltimore investment bank Alex. Brown in 1991 and chairman in 1994, while also consulting for directors of the CIA. He joined the agency full-time in February 1998 as Counselor to Director George Tenet, and on March 16, 2001 was promoted to Executive Director — the CIA's third-ranking position, effectively its chief operating officer, running daily operations. His biography is laid out in a public SEC proxy filing.
- Apollo Global Management DEF 14A proxy statement (SEC filing, 2022) — Krongard's Alex. Brown and CIA career
The largest cluster of pre-9/11 United puts was routed through Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown — the firm Krongard built.
FACTAlex. Brown merged with Bankers Trust (1997), which Deutsche Bank then acquired (1999), creating Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown — the same firm, bigger parent. Contemporary reporting traced the largest single cluster of United Airlines put options to that brokerage. Krongard had already left for the CIA by then; the connection is that he built the firm, not that he was at its desk. His successor as chairman, Mayo A. Shattuck III, resigned on Sept. 12, 2001 — the day after the attacks — with no substantive public explanation, and moved to run an energy company.
- The Independent, 'Mystery of terror insider dealers' (Oct. 14, 2001); The New York Times, 'Chief Steps Down At Alex. Brown' (Sept. 15, 2001)
The SEC found no advance-knowledge trading, traced the puts to a hedge fund — then classified the report and destroyed the case files.
FACTThis is the crux, and it cuts both ways. The SEC reviewed 9.5 million transactions across 103 companies and concluded: 'We have not developed any evidence suggesting that those who had advance knowledge of the September 11 attacks traded.' It traced 95% of the Sept. 6 UAL put volume to a single U.S. institutional investor — a hedge fund manager overseeing ~$5.3 billion — who said it was a bearish sector bet. The SEC accepted that. But it also redacted the investor's name, classified the report, fought FOIA requests for eight years (released only in 2010 via the National Security Archive, still partly blacked out), and — its own Inspector General documented — destroyed the pre-investigation 'Matters Under Inquiry' files in violation of federal record-keeping rules.
- SEC, 'Pre-September 11, 2001 Trading Review' (FOIA release, 2010) — conclusion and the 95%/hedge-fund tracing
- 9/11 Commission Report (p.172; note 130, p.499) referenced but did not publish the SEC review; SEC Office of Inspector General report on destruction of 'Matters Under Inquiry' records
Krongard wired the CIA to Blackwater, joined its board, and his brother — the State Dept watchdog — lied under oath about the tie.
FACTThis strand needs no speculation. While Executive Director, Krongard connected the CIA to Erik Prince's Blackwater; in April 2002 Blackwater won a $5.4 million no-bid contract to guard the CIA station in Kabul — its first government contract, and the seed of its rise. Krongard left the CIA in September 2004 and joined Blackwater's advisory board. His brother, Howard 'Cookie' Krongard, was Inspector General of the State Department — the official overseeing accountability for contractors like Blackwater. On Nov. 14, 2007, before the House Oversight Committee, Howard denied his brother had any Blackwater connection under oath, then had to correct his testimony mid-hearing when shown Erik Prince's letter inviting Buzzy onto the board.
- House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearings on Blackwater (Oct. 2, 2007; Nov. 14, 2007); NPR reporting on the State Department Inspector General's Blackwater ties
“Did al-Qaeda trade?” was the wrong question.
Whether anyone with foreknowledge — in or out of government — was among the traders.
SOME SMOKEThe SEC set out to answer one question: did the hijackers or al-Qaeda profit from the attacks? It concluded no — the biggest bet was a U.S. hedge fund's. But “was it al-Qaeda?” and “did anyone with advance knowledge trade?” are not the same question. The peer-reviewed studies that flagged “informed trading” were not claiming the hijackers did it; informed trading can mean anyone who knew. That broader question — who else might have known, and whether the striking overlap of finance and intelligence around this brokerage was ever examined — does not appear to have been asked on the public record. We grade the existence of an unanswered question SOME SMOKE: there is a real, documented thread (the anomaly, the routing, the secrecy) and no proof of wrongdoing by any named person. A question is not a verdict, and we are not turning it into one.
Two smaller facts keep the thread from closing cleanly. The SEC redacted the name of the investor it cleared, so the public cannot check the exoneration. And of the United put profits, roughly $2.5 million was reportedly never collected — winnings that paid off and then sat unclaimed for over a month. There are innocent explanations for both. There are also less innocent ones. The point of this page is that the record does not let you rule either out — and the people who could have is the same government that buried the file.
Where the evidence is strong, and where it stops
- The SEC cleared the biggest trade. Its stated finding is no advance-knowledge trading, with 95% of the UAL puts traced to a hedge fund's sector bet. We report that as the official conclusion, not as something we've disproven.
- Coincidence of position is not participation. That Krongard built the brokerage and ran the CIA is striking, but a person is not responsible for trades placed at a firm he left years earlier by people he need never have met. We assert no link between him and the trades.
- Anomalous ≠ criminal. The put spike is statistically extreme and peer-reviewed, but abnormal trading has innocent causes (a bearish newsletter, sector fear, hedging). “Consistent with informed trading” is a probability statement, not a name.
- Shattuck's resignation has no established 9/11 link. The timing (Sept. 12) is provocative; no evidence ties it to the trades. We note it as fact and draw no conclusion.
- The Blackwater strand is different. The CIA–Blackwater pipeline, Krongard's board seat, and his brother's corrected sworn testimony are documented and need no inference. That's graded FACT on its own.
Secrecy is what turns a coincidence into a suspicion
If the SEC had named the cleared investor and published its work, this would be a closed case with a strange footnote. Instead it classified the report, litigated against its release for eight years, and destroyed the underlying files — and in doing so guaranteed that the coincidence would never fully die. That is the real lesson, and it's the one this site keeps finding: the damage isn't always the crime; sometimes it's the refusal to let anyone check. A banker who built a brokerage and then ran the CIA is exactly the kind of figure a transparent inquiry exists to clear or to catch. We got neither. It belongs beside the rest of the CIA Crimes file — and the broader ledger of investigations that close without answers.
Questions worth taking seriously
Isn't this just 9/11 'inside job' conspiracy content?
No — and the difference is the discipline. We assert no controlled demolition, no foreknowledge by any named person, no U.S.-government plot. We report peer-reviewed findings about anomalous trading, a documented biography, and a documented pattern of official secrecy, and we grade the sinister reading SOME SMOKE precisely because it isn't proven. The SEC's exoneration of the biggest trade is on the page, up front. That's the opposite of how conspiracy content works.
If the SEC cleared it, why keep writing about it?
Because the clearance is unverifiable by design. The SEC redacted the investor's name, classified the report, fought its release for eight years, and destroyed the case files. You are asked to take the exoneration on faith from an agency that made checking impossible — and that asked a narrower question (“did al-Qaeda trade?”) than the one the anomaly raises. Trusting a conclusion you're not allowed to inspect is exactly the habit this site exists to resist.
If you are named on this page
If you are named on this page, or are a party materially affected by the claims made here, and you wish to respond, correct the record, or add context, use the Contact page. Responses are published verbatim alongside the original claim, with the sender identified and the date of receipt. The channel stays open for the life of the page.
This site aggregates and grades a record that other outlets and primary sources have already put on the record. Every FACT-graded claim above is sourced to court filings, government reports, sworn whistleblower disclosures, published investigative journalism, or named-source statements. The citations are the accountability mechanism; this section is how you get on the record too.
The record
- SEC — Statement Concerning Terrorist Attack Trading Investigation (2004) and the SEC “Pre-September 11, 2001 Trading Review” (FOIA release, 2010); SEC Office of Inspector General report on destruction of “Matters Under Inquiry” records
- Peer-reviewed studies: Poteshman, “Unusual Option Market Activity and the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001” (Journal of Business, 2006); Chesney, Crameri & Mancini, “Detecting Abnormal Trading Activities in Option Markets” (Journal of Empirical Finance, 2015); Wong, Thompson & Tian on S&P 500 index options
- CBS News, “Profiting From Disaster?” (Sept. 19, 2001); The Independent, “Mystery of terror insider dealers” (Oct. 14, 2001); The New York Times, “Chief Steps Down At Alex. Brown” (Sept. 15, 2001)
- Apollo Global Management DEF 14A proxy statement (SEC filing, 2022) — Krongard biography; 9/11 Commission Report (p.172; note 130, p.499)
- U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Blackwater hearings (Oct. 2 and Nov. 14, 2007); NPR reporting on the State Department Inspector General