December 20, 2006 S.E.C. Says Russian Trader Used Stolen Online Passwords By FLOYD NORRIS Pump-and-dump schemes in the stock market are an old way of making money from gullible investors, but they require persuading the investor to buy an overpriced stock. A Russian trader, operating through an Estonian brokerage firm, found a simpler way to pump and dump stocks, the Securities and Exchange Commission said yesterday. The S.E.C. said that the trader, Evgeny Gashichev, who was trading though an account of Grand Logistic, a Belize corporation based in Estonia, used the Internet to steal passwords of account holders at online brokerage firms, among them E*Trade Securities, TD Ameritrade and Scottrade. The commission said Mr. Gashichev would buy, through his own account, shares in a thinly traded company. Immediately after that, he would use the accounts of victims to buy large quantities of the stock, driving up the price. He would then sell his shares into that demand. In some cases, he would then sell the stock short, profiting further when the price declined. The S.E.C. complaint said that Mr. Gashichev âinitially funded the Grand Logistic account with $30,000, and, in approximately seven weeks, realized $353,609 in profits from his fraudulent scheme.â It said the trades, from Aug. 28 through Oct. 13, were in 21 securities. Daniel M. Hawke, administrator of the S.E.C. district office in Philadelphia, said: âThe S.E.C. has become aware of a dramatic increase in the number of intrusions into online brokerage accounts. We have been working closely with other regulators and brokerage firms in an effort to ensure that online brokerage trading is safe and secure.â He added that âbrokerage firms are typically covering the intrusion-related losses of their customers.â The commission said a federal judge in New York barred taking the profits from the trades out of the United States, and ordered repatriation of the money already taken. Amy J. Greer, an S.E.C. lawyer, said in an interview that the money had been sent to Estonia, but that authorities there had frozen the account. âThe Estonian authorities have been very cooperative,â she said. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/business/worldbusiness/20pump.html ____________ No mention of it, so probably safe to infer that the mastermind remains free to practice his craft...
Those Russians are smart. All that chessplaying paying off.... In the early days of Paypal, Russian hackers kept emptying out the accounts causing a few million dollars damage to Paypal...
Yeah the entire FSU countries,generally speaking, the kids are much more educated than a comparable American kid. It has been this way for a long time too, not just recently.
I noticed many of these frauds as they occured. Could have been stopped very easily. And how is it he was able to steal so many passwords.
A friend of mine, extremely active in the Anti - SEC movement went to the beach for a day. While he was there, and it was odd for him to be out of the office, his ETrade account mysteriously sold 80,000 shares of a OTCBB stock with huge failed postions. The stock plummeted to around five cents where the shares were scooped up, and then the stock rebounded. Interestingly enough he held certs in safe keeping. ETrade had to fix the trade; this guy of course saw the activity immediately and complained to ETRADE the SEC and The NASD. He went to a State Regulator we know who told him he would help if the guy's home state didn't. However, he said, he was sure that it would lead to an Eastern European ISP address. In these investigative type things, once they investigate you hear nothing until it 's over one way or another. However, it's a much bigger deal than 300 grand. This guy is a piker. Adn the the real story is yet to come out. We are being fleeced by offshore and Eastern European funds.And nobody wants, notice I say "wants" to stop it. Money is too good.