11 May AtoZForex, Vilnius - The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has reached a $100,000 settlement with the newswire hack conspirator Oleksandr Makarov. The defendant got accused of being involved with a $100 million scheme. According to the SEC's investigation, Oleksandr Makarov participated in trading stocks on information gained through hacked press releases.
The case started back in August 2015 when SEC accused the 32-year old Oleksandr Makarov along with a few other individuals to be involved in the newswire hack scheme. The regulator discovered that Oleksandr Makarov traded stocks, based on press releases stolen through a newswire hack. The scheme generated over $100 million ill-gotten profits for the conspirators. In the case of Oleksandr Makarov, SEC discovered that the defendant made a profit of $80,000 through the hack.
Newswire Hack generated over $100 million
Oleksandr Makarov is one of the 32 accused traders to be involved in the global hack that generated over $100 million of ill-gotten profits. According to the US attorney Paul J. Fishman, about 150,000 news releases were stolen from PR Newswire Association LLC, Business Wire and Marketwired LP. The press releases were stolen between 2012 and 2014. In the case of Oleksandr Makarov, SEC discovered that the defendant made a profit of $80,000 through the hack.
The SEC settlement was an issue to court approval as of May 4th, 2016. It followed the SEC’s complaint which was released in 2015, as well as an amended complaint filed in federal court in New Jersey. The latter included an asset freeze and different kind of other emergency actions against the defendants. By agreeing to pay the SEC settlement, Oleksandr Makarov is basically not admitting or denying the allegations of the US regulator.
$52 million recovered from hack
The Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States emphasized that it has now recovered almost $52 million while obtaining full injunctive relief from the 11 defendants that have agreed to settlements. Oleksandr Makarov was the last in this portion of settlements, with the minor percentage of the overall sum, which was recovered. What is more, over $18 million settlement was reached last month with 7 other defendants in the hack press releases case.
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