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Vladislav Klyushin, age 42, of Moscow, was found guilty on Tuesday, Feb. 14, on all charges, including wire fraud and securities fraud, following a 10-day trial in Boston, the US Attorney for Massachusetts said. He faces up to 30 years in federal prison.
“The jury saw Mr. Klyushin for exactly what he is – a cybercriminal and a cheat," US Attorney Rachel Rollins said. "He repeatedly gamed the system and finally got caught. Now he is a convicted felon. For nearly three years, he and his co-conspirators repeatedly hacked into US computer networks to obtain tomorrow’s headlines today. ... Mr. Klyushin compromised the integrity of our securities markets and cheated individual investors and pension funds.”
Klyushin owned the cyber-security firm M-13, which claimed to offer hacking protection for “the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation, federal ministries and departments, regional state executive bodies, commercial companies, and public organizations.”
Federal investigators said beginning in January 2018, Klyushin and several others used stolen log-in credentials to access a computer system located in downtown Boston. It belonged to a filing agency that companies use to submit earnings reports and other information to the SEC.
The hackers stole yet-to-be-released reports from dozens of companies. Klyushin and his co-conspirators used this insider information to buy stocks and made $90 million in profits, federal prosecutors said.
The odds of making that many correct trades without the benefit of insider information is about one in a trillion, authorities said.
Officials arrested Klyushin in March 2021 after his private plane touched down in Sion, Switzerland in March 2021. They extradited him to the United States later that year. Four of his co-conspirators remain on the run.
A judge is set to sentence him on May 4.
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