This stock manipulation scheme was a real bomb.

Mark Charles Barnett, 48, of Ocala, FL, plotted to blow up Target stores along the East Coast to send the company’s stock price tanking, so that he could scoop up shares for a song.

The Gordon Gekko wannabe “theorized that the company’s stock value would plunge after the explosions, allowing him to cheaply acquire shares of Target stock before an eventual rebound in prices,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida wrote in a release.

According to court papers:

• The ex-con hatched his plan in January when he allegedly tried to hire a partner, offering him $10,000 to plant the bombs at the Target stores. But the partner quickly went to the feds and began working undercover for them.
• On February 1, Barnett revealed to the informant that he was going “to make the “Target Corporation stock drop” after ‘his partner’ delivered the packages to the stores.
• Eight days later, Barnett drove to the informant’s nearby home and showed him 10 food-item boxes overflowing with battery-powered explosive devices containing black gunpowder and attached to a model rocket motor igniter.
• Federal agents arrested Barnett on February 14 during a meeting with the informant to go over the final details of the plan.

“An explosives expert determined that they were capable of causing property damage, serious injury, or death to nearby persons upon detonation,” the feds said.