Craig A. Newman writes:
Last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged nine defendants with hacking into the agency’s EDGAR system – the online platform used by public companies for making their public filings – and stealing material nonpublic information to use for illegal trading purposes.
While the charges are new, the insider trading scheme goes back years and underscores the challenges faced by U.S. law enforcement and regulatory authorities in pursuing foreign nationals who violate U.S. securities laws.
According to a 43-page complaint filed in federal court in New Jersey, a Ukrainian hacker and six individual traders based in the U.S., the Ukraine and Russia, made off with more than $4.1 million in illegal profits by hacking the EDGAR system and trading in front of market-moving news.
Read more on Data Security Law Blog.