US charges traders for hacking into Securities and Exchange Commission database

Authorities said the scheme resulted in $4.14 million of illegal trading profit, and cheated ordinary investors. US authorities on Tuesday charged a suspected Ukrainian computer hacker and several traders with scheming to trade on market-moving corporate earnings news stolen from a US Securities and Exchange Commission database. The charges against 10 defendants, including two charged criminally, relate to a suspected 2016 intrusion into Edgar, the SEC’s corporate filing system used by public companies and money managers. The SEC filed related civil charges accusing six individuals and two companies in the United States, Russia and Ukraine of reaping the $4.14 million of gains from May to October 2016, with some profits kicked back to Ieremenko.