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SEC Accuses Russian Hacker of Manipulating Stock Prices

by Terrence O'Brien on March 17, 2010 at 01:19 PM

Valery Maltsev, believed to be the sole owner and operator of Broco Investments, has found himself in the crosshairs of the SEC. The St. Petersburg, Russia-based trader has had his assets and accounts frozen after being fingered as the man behind a "pump and dump" scam.

According to a complaint filed by the SEC, Broco hacked several accounts at AmeriServe Financial, and used them to manipulate prices. Broco would place orders for lightly traded stocks, and then use the hacked accounts to buy shares of companies in its portfolio, artificially inflating prices. Broco would then immediately dump those stocks at a profit.

Since December 20th, when Broco allegedly began its scam, the amount of daily trades at AmeriServe has increased 20-fold. In that time, Broco has collected roughly $255,000 in illicit funds, while costing victims over $600,000. Sadly, considering the difficulty in getting Russia to properly pursue other cyber criminals, we have little hope that Broco Investments, and whoever is behind the company, will receive the punishment it deserves. [From: Wired]

Tags: cyber crime, CyberCrime, hacker, Pump and dump, PumpAndDump, scam, security, stocks, top

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