Slashdot Mirror
SEC Takes Action Against Latvian Hacker
wiredmikey writes "The SEC has filed charges against a trader in Latvia for conducting a widespread online account intrusion scheme in which he manipulated the prices of more than 100 NYSE and Nasdaq securities by making unauthorized purchases or sales from hijacked brokerage accounts. The SEC also went after four online trading firms and eight executives who are said to have helped the hacker make more than $850,000 in ill-gotten funds. The SEC's actions occurred on the same day that the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) issued an investor alert and a regulatory notice about an increase in financially motivated attacks targeting email."
Two of the associates working for two of the named firms agreed to settle for $35,000 each in fines.
And the SEC wonders why people keep doing this sort of thing. I bet those two guys (and many other not charged) walked away with millions.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Absolutely not. This is criminal behavior. The vast majority of traders are law abiding citizens who are trying to make a living. They are necessary to allow for general market liquidity http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_liquidity and for the world economy to function. In a general economic crisis, everyone is going to get hurt, and some countries more so than others. It is also pretty damn clear that he was't using this money to help little orphans or unemployed widows or what not. This was money that the criminal directed to himself. And much of the money in the stock market is in pension funds and the like for all sorts of companies, so draining money from the market ends up hurting all sorts of people who are about to retire and live on fixed incomes or people who have already retired and are stuck on tiny fixed incomes. This isn't Robin Hood, this is a thief taking advantage of regular people.