Security News > 2023 > February > Russian crook made $90M exploiting stolen info on Tesla, Roku, Avnet, Snap, more

A US federal jury in Boston on Tuesday found Vladislav Klyushin - who owned an IT biz based in Moscow called M-13 - guilty of wire and securities fraud and conspiracy after two weeks of testimony and ten hours of deliberations.

Prosecutors in the case argued that Klyushin and four others broke into the networks of Donnelley Financial Solutions and Toppan Merrill, through which publicly traded entities electronically file their quarterly earnings reports with America's financial watchdog, the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the Department of Justice, Klyushin and his co-conspirators used credentials stolen from employees of the two firms to access their networks and view and download the pre-released financial filings from hundreds of corporations.

Klyushin himself used the stolen information to spin a $2 million investment into $21 million in returns.

Defense lawyers argued that "Gaping holes" existed in the prosecution's case, saying there was no evidence linking Klyushin to inside information or to the attacks on Donnelley Financial or Toppan Merrill.

The lawyers said Klyushin was a "Convenient target" because he is Russian, wealthy, and owned a business that provided cybersecurity and media monitoring services to the Russian government and officials.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/02/15/russian_convicted_insider_trading/