BOSTON –
A Russian millionaire with ties to the Kremlin was convicted on Tuesday of participating in an elaborate $90 million insider-trading scheme using secret income information from secret agents. Companies like Microsoft have been stolen from US computer networks.
Vladislav Klyushin, who ran a Moscow-based information technology company affiliated with the Russian government, was found guilty of all charges against him, including wire fraud and securities fraud, after a two-week trial in federal court in Boston.
He was arrested in 2021 in Switzerland after arriving by private jet and just before he and his team were due to board a helicopter to take them to a nearby ski resort. Four alleged accomplices – including a Russian military intelligence officer who is also accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential election – have yet to be arrested.
An email seeking comment was sent to Klyushin’s attorney on Tuesday.
Klyushin is the owner of an information technology company based in Moscow, which intends to provide services to detect vulnerabilities in computer systems. According to prosecutors, among its clients it includes the administration of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other government institutions.
Klyushin is also a close friend of a Russian military officer who was among 12 Russians charged in 2018 for hacking into important Democratic email accounts, including those belonging to President of the presidential campaign of Hilary Clinton, John Podesta, the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Prosecutors accused Ivan Ermakov, who worked for Klyushin’s company, of being a hacker in an insider trading scheme. They did not allege that Klyushin was involved in election interference.
Prosecutors say hackers stole employee usernames and passwords for two U.S.-based vendors that the publicly traded companies used to profile through the Securities and Exchange Commission. Securities and Trading. They then broke into the computer systems of suppliers to obtain the financial information of hundreds of companies – including Microsoft, Tesla and Kohls, Ulta Beauty and Sketchers – before being filed with the SEC and made public. testify, prosecutors said.
Armed with this inside information, they were able to defraud the stock market, prosecutors allege, who said Klyushin personally turned a $2 million investment into nearly $21 million. , and in total, the team turned around $9 million into nearly $90 million.
Klyushin’s attorney denied that his client was involved in the plot, telling jurors in the opening statement that the government’s case was filled with “holes” and “inferences”.
