In the UK, a 39-year-old citizen named Robert Westbrook has been apprehended on suspicion of carrying out cyber attacks on five public companies in order to obtain confidential information about their corporate profits. Investigators believe that Westbrook managed to make approximately $3.75 million through these illicit activities.
The US Department of Justice has revealed that Westbrook conducted the hacks between January and August, gaining unauthorized access to sensitive data before it was made public. The cybercriminal targeted Office365 accounts of top executives, obtaining corporate emails which he then used to engage in insider trading.
Westbrook allegedly leveraged this insider information to buy and sell stocks ahead of the companies’ profit disclosures. The US authorities are now seeking his extradition to face charges related to fraud, securities trading with insider knowledge, and computer offenses.
If convicted, Westbrook could potentially face significant jail time for each of the charges brought against him. The investigating authorities in the US claim that he went to great lengths to conceal his identity, employing anonymous email accounts, VPN services, and conducting transactions in bitcoins.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has demanded that Westbrook reimburse the $3.75 million he allegedly made through his illegal activities, in addition to paying fines whose amounts have not been disclosed yet.
This case is just one in a series of similar crimes. In a separate incident, Russian national Vladislav Klyushin was sentenced to nine years in prison last September for orchestrating a comparable scheme that involved illegal transactions amounting to around $93 million.