In a rare intersection of banking and financial services law with geopolitics, Vladislav Klyushin—a wealthy Russian businessman convicted for financial crimes by a federal jury in Boston last year—was released as part of a prisoner swap between Russia and the West last month.
Klyushin had been sentenced to nine years in prison after he was convicted of wire fraud, unauthorized access to computers, securities fraud, and entering a conspiracy to commit one or more of these underlying crimes.
Klyushin and his co-conspirators had hacked into computer networks of filing agents used by publicly traded companies to make quarterly and annual filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The co-conspirators obtained material non-public information from such filings not yet submitted to the SEC and used such information to trade in securities prior to public earnings announcements.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 1343, it is unlawful to knowingly and willfully participate in a scheme to defraud by means of false pretenses, using interstate wire communications in furtherance of the scheme. See United States v. Gorski, 880 F.3d 27, 37 (1st Cir. 2018).
The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(4), makes it unlawful for a person to knowingly and with intent to defraud access a protected computer without authorization, or exceed authorized access, and by means of such conduct further the intended fraud and obtain anything of value.
The Securities Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), makes it unlawful to use or employ, in connection with the purchase or sale of any security registered on a national securities exchange, any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance in contravention of SEC rules and regulations.