A citizen of Russia used stolen financial documents belonging to hundreds of companies around the world, and together with accomplices earned more than $ 90 million
The large federal jury of the United States in Boston recognized Vladislav Klyushin on February 14, the owner of an IT company in Moscow called M-13, guilty of fraud using electronic means and securities, as well as in a conspiracy.
According to the prosecutors, Klyushin and his 4 accomplices, the Donnelley Financial Solutions and Toppan Merrill chains hacked through, through which publicly traded companies in electronic form submit their quarterly reports on income in the Commission on Securities and Exchange (SECs).
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Invasions from 2018 to 2020 gave men access to undisclosed financial information of companies, which allowed the group to play the market and make transactions before the income was announced publicly.
In fact, they stole copies of financial reports that the companies had to submit to the Sec (for example, quarterly profit and sale) and used this closed information to buy or sell shares in anticipation that the reports will ultimately become public investors.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Klyushin and its accomplices, the accounting data stolen from the employees of two firms for access to their networks , as well as to view and download pre-published financial documents of hundreds of corporations.
The goals were Tesla, Snap, Roku, Avnet, Cytornx Therapeutics, Horizon Therapeutics, Puma Biotechnology and Capstead Mortgage.
Prosecutors said that Klyushin properly traded in profit and loss reports in 86% of cases. The accused used stolen information to turn investments of $ 2 million into an income of $ 21 million. In the end, the group earned $ 90 million. In investments of $ 9 million
Protection lawyers argued that there are “gaping holes” in the charges, saying that there is no evidence connecting the column with insider information or with attacks on the Donnelley Financial or Toppan Merrill. According to them, Klyushin was more likely to rely on news messages and information on social networks collected by his company.
Lawyers said that Klyushin was a “convenient target” because he was “Russian, rich and owned a business”, which provided cybersecurity and monitoring of the media to the Russian government and officials. According to lawyers, the special services of the United States and the UK tried to recruit Klyushin in 2019 and 2020.
Klyushin was arrested in Switzerland on March 21, 2021 after he left his private plane during a ski walk with his family. Russia asked the Swiss authorities to return Klyushin to Moscow, but instead the Swiss answered the request of the US authorities to send him to the States for legend to the court. He was imprisoned in the state of Massachusetts in anticipation of the court and will remain there until the sentence in May.
The alleged collars of Klyushin on this scam are known and remain free. Among them are 35-year-old M-13 employee Ivan Ermakov. He is also wanted in connection with his alleged involvement in Russia’s intervention in the 2016 presidential election and anti -doping authorities.