A federal jury in Boston convicted Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin in an insider trading case involving tens of millions of dollars. He was charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud, reports Reuters.
Four more Russians, Ivan Ermakov, Nikolai Rumyantsev, Mikhail Irzak, and Igor Sladkov, were charged with the implementation of the scheme in the amount of almost $90 million. However, only 42-year-old Klyushin appeared before the court, who was detained in March 2021 in Switzerland and then extradited to the United States.
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According to the prosecution, from January 2018 to September 2020, the defendants in the case traded securities of public companies based on material non-public information (MNPI) about the income of these enterprises. The defendants gained unauthorized access to the company’s computer networks by stealing the logins and passwords of their employees using malware.
Knowing the financial statements in advance, they bought shares of companies that had positive results and sold falling shares. The profits were distributed among the accounts in Cyprus, Denmark, Portugal, Russia and the USA.
Klyushin is the founder and owner of the information technology company M-13, which monitors the media and social networks Katyusha. His services were used by the presidential administration, the government and the Russian Ministry of Defense. His lawyer said that the persecution of the businessman is connected with work for the Russian government and access to classified information.
The US Treasury Department calls Ivan Ermakov a “former GRU officer” and was charged in 2018 with involvement in an attempt to interfere in the US elections in 2016. In 2018, the US imposed sanctions on him due to his involvement in cyberattacks on WADA computers.
The Proekt publication in 2018 called Klyushin the alleged author of the popular political anonymous telegram channel Nezygar. A source close to the presidential administration claimed that Klyushin posted paid materials on the telegram channel, and the channel itself is closely associated with the deputy head of the presidential administration Alexei Gromov, who had previously fallen under US sanctions. Klyushin obtained a refutation of the information of the “Project” in court, saying that the publication exposes him as an unreliable business partner. Radio Liberty, citing two sources, indicated that since then the telegram channel Nezygar has changed its leadership.
