A group of Eastern Europeans broke into the SEC’s company filings database, stole nonpublic information, and then made illicit trades worth over $4.1 million, the agency and DOJ said Jan. 15.
Oleksandr Ieremenko hacked the Securities and Exchange Commission’s EDGAR e-filing system in 2016, then passed the information he obtained to a group of Ukrainian and Russian traders who used it to make a profit, according to two cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
Ieremenko and Artem Radchenko face a criminal indictment for conspiracy to commit securities fraud. Radchenko allegedly “recruited traders to join the conspiracy” and kept notes on what the SEC does and how to hack it, the Justice Department said.
Both agencies have reduced staff due to the government shutdown. The SEC has been operating on an emergency-only basis since it ran out of funding Dec. 26.
Ieremenko, based in Kiev, Ukraine, already faces ongoing civil and criminal cases for a related scheme, according to the complaint.
Attorneys for Ieremenko, Radchenko, and their alleged trading partners weren’t listed on the docket and couldn’t be identified for comment.
The cases are SEC v. Ieremenko, D.N.J., No. 2:19-cv-00505, complaint filed 1/15/19 and United States v. Radchenko, D.N.J., indictment filed 1/15/19.
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