This makes me think of the plot of Casino Royale, where an international money launderer (more or less a hedge fund manager) tries to blow up a plane in order to send its maker's stock plummeting.
More on point, some anonymous investors made billions shorting airlines on 9/11. That's like a perfect storm of insider trading ("As long as we're wrecking the airline industry with a terrorist act, let's short some stock on it make a bundle!").
It's been disproven -- The 'billions' made in shorts were just a hedge against a much larger long position that was initiated. The 9/11 Commission did a pretty detailed investigation that Snopes covered here:
