The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued fraud charges against 32 defendants for conspiring to profit from stock trades based on confidential information about corporate earnings announcements provided by two Ukrainians who are believed to have hacked into newswire services to obtain the data, generating over $100 million in illegal gains.
The SEC’s August 10th complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Newark, was unsealed Tuesday as the court ordered the defendant’s assets be frozen while proceedings continue.
“This international scheme is unprecedented in terms of the scope of the hacking, the number of traders, the number of securities traded and profits generated,” said SEC Chair Mary Jo White.
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