Hack job nets Russian businessman millions in insider trading
21 December 2021 - 15:38
byNate Raymond
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Boston — Five Russians including a Kremlin-linked businessman now in US custody carried out a vast, $82m insider trading scheme that allowed them to profit from corporate information stolen through hacking, US authorities said on Monday.
Vladislav Klyushin, the owner of a Moscow-based information technology company that prosecutors said had extensive ties to the Russian government, was extradited on Saturday from Switzerland to face conspiracy, securities fraud and other charges in Boston.
Klyushin, who was arrested in Switzerland in March while on a ski trip, appeared briefly from a Massachusetts jail during a virtual court hearing. A bail hearing is tentatively set for Thursday.
Prosecutors accused him and others of trading on corporate earnings reports obtained by hacking into the computer systems of two vendors that help companies filing quarterly and annual reports with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Those companies included IBM, Snap and Tesla. Prosecutors said Klyushin and employees of his company M-13 LLC placed trades for themselves as well for clients in exchange for a cut of their profits.
Authorities said the computer systems were hacked into by Ivan Yermakov, an M-13 employee who was among several Russian military intelligence officers charged in 2018 with carrying out hacking schemes to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election and target anti-doping agencies.
The scheme in total netted at least $82.5m from 2018 to 2020, the SEC said in a related lawsuit.
Yermakov remains at large, along with three other defendants: M-13 director Nikolai Rumiantcev and two Russian businessmen who prosecutors say traded on the hacked information, Mikhail Irzak and Igor Sladkov.
They could not be reached for comment.
Klyushin’s lawyers have called the case politically motivated and argued the real reason he was sought was his work and contacts within the Russian government, which calls the case part of a hunt for Russians by Washington.
But while acting US attorney Nathaniel Mendell stressed Klyushin’s “extensive ties” to the Kremlin, he said authorities did not know at the outset of the two-year probe “where the facts and investigation would lead us”.
Support our award-winning journalism. The Premium package (digital only) is R30 for the first month and thereafter you pay R129 p/m now ad-free for all subscribers.
Hack job nets Russian businessman millions in insider trading
Boston — Five Russians including a Kremlin-linked businessman now in US custody carried out a vast, $82m insider trading scheme that allowed them to profit from corporate information stolen through hacking, US authorities said on Monday.
Vladislav Klyushin, the owner of a Moscow-based information technology company that prosecutors said had extensive ties to the Russian government, was extradited on Saturday from Switzerland to face conspiracy, securities fraud and other charges in Boston.
Klyushin, who was arrested in Switzerland in March while on a ski trip, appeared briefly from a Massachusetts jail during a virtual court hearing. A bail hearing is tentatively set for Thursday.
Prosecutors accused him and others of trading on corporate earnings reports obtained by hacking into the computer systems of two vendors that help companies filing quarterly and annual reports with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Those companies included IBM, Snap and Tesla. Prosecutors said Klyushin and employees of his company M-13 LLC placed trades for themselves as well for clients in exchange for a cut of their profits.
Authorities said the computer systems were hacked into by Ivan Yermakov, an M-13 employee who was among several Russian military intelligence officers charged in 2018 with carrying out hacking schemes to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election and target anti-doping agencies.
The scheme in total netted at least $82.5m from 2018 to 2020, the SEC said in a related lawsuit.
Yermakov remains at large, along with three other defendants: M-13 director Nikolai Rumiantcev and two Russian businessmen who prosecutors say traded on the hacked information, Mikhail Irzak and Igor Sladkov.
They could not be reached for comment.
Klyushin’s lawyers have called the case politically motivated and argued the real reason he was sought was his work and contacts within the Russian government, which calls the case part of a hunt for Russians by Washington.
But while acting US attorney Nathaniel Mendell stressed Klyushin’s “extensive ties” to the Kremlin, he said authorities did not know at the outset of the two-year probe “where the facts and investigation would lead us”.
Reuters
Tribunal confirms insider trading finding against Markus Jooste
Fed bans senior officials from trading shares in wake of ethics scandal
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
Most Read
Related Articles
Biden’s $1.75-trillion spending bill under threat as key senator withdraws ...
Published by Arena Holdings and distributed with the Financial Mail on the last Thursday of every month except December and January.