German computer experts are examining an unexplained surge in financial transactions made just before two hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center (WTC) on September 11th.
German-based firm Convar is trying to help credit card companies, telecommunications firms and accountants in New York recover their records from computer hard drives that have been partially damaged by fire, water or fine dust.
"The suspicion is that inside information about the attack was used to send financial transaction commands and authorisations in the belief that amid all the chaos the criminals would have, at the very least, a good head start," said Convar director Mr Peter Henschel.
"Of course it is also possible that there were perfectly legitimate reasons for the unusual rise in business volume," he said. "It could turn out that Americans went on an absolute shopping binge on that Tuesday morning. But at this point there are many transactions that cannot be accounted for.
"Not only the volume but the size of the transactions was far higher than usual for a day like that. There is a suspicion that these were possibly planned to take advantage of the chaos," he said.
Mr Richard Wagner, a data retrieval expert at the company, said illegal transfers of more than $100 million might have been made immediately before and during the disaster.
"There is a suspicion that some people had advance knowledge of the approximate time of the plane crashes in order to move out amounts exceeding $100 million," Mr Wagner said. "They thought that the records of their transactions could not be traced after the mainframes were destroyed".
Convar has turned down a request by one British newspaper to try to recover personal e-mails sent by someone trapped in the buildings.