NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — A group of Ukrainian hackers worked with securities traders in the U.S. to make $30 million by breaking into the computer systems of companies that publish news releases about mergers and acquisitions and trading on the information before it became public, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.
Federal prosecutors in New Jersey and New York City, along with Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary Jo White, will discuss the case late Tuesday morning in Newark.
An indictment against five people was unsealed in Newark, and another was filed under seal in Brooklyn.
Ivan Turchynov and Oleksandr Ieremenko are described by prosecutors as Ukrainian computer hackers. Securities traders Arkadiy Dubovoy and his son, Igor Dubovoy, both of Alpharetta, Georgia, were charged, along with another relative, Ukrainian security trader Pavel Dubovoy.
None of the defendants have attorneys listed, prosecutors said.
The indictment in New Jersey also mentions four co-conspirators: two securities traders from Georgia and broker-dealers from Brooklyn and Pennsylvania.
Matthew Reilly, a spokesman for prosecutors in New Jersey, said five of the defendants have been arrested.
Prosecutors allege the scheme started in February 2010.