Hacker wanted in the US for theft of stock press release asks for Ukrainian citizenship
Vladislav Khalupsky, the Person of Interest in the theft of stock-company press releases in the US, who was detained in Ukraine at the beginning of the year, has requested Ukrainian citizenship, 368.media reported, citing a decision by the Malinovsky District Court in Odessa.
According to US authorities, a group of hackers, starting around February 2010, penetrated the computer servers of PR Newswire Association, Marketwired and Business Wire. There they obtained access to unannounced transactions and passed on information to their partners based in the US.
This allowed unscrupulous traders to earn on insider information. Hackers then receive an agreed share of profits.
Their earnings from this activity exceeded $25 million.
Khalupsky allegedly coordinated the distribution of information received by the "hackers" between traders regarding securities.
In 2016, the District Court of the Eastern District of New York issued an indictment in which Khalupsky and his accomplices were accused of conspiracy to commit fraud using electronic means of communication, securities fraud, illegal intrusion into the PR Newswire and Marketwired networks, and conspiracy with a view to laundering funds. In October, an arrest warrant was issued.
Khalupsky was detained in Odessa in mid-February 2017. The court placed him under nightly house arrest. In early May, the Regional Prosecutor's office completed an extradition investigation. "Supervisors" did not find circumstances that could prevent the extradition of the hacker to the American authorities. At the same time, the audit findings indicate that in the event that Khalupsky received Ukrainian citizenship, his extradition would not be possible. Two weeks after the end of the audit, on May 18, 2017, the hacker applied to the migration service for citizenship.
Khalupsky was born in Odessa, and can obtain the Ukrainian citizenship by birth. In 1989, he left for the United States, where, as he himself said, "under the impression of the movie "Wall Street" he dreamed of trading securities." As a result, he settled down in Manhattan as a real estate agent, then, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, flew to Moscow and opened his own trading business there. In 1998, he returned to America, where he opened a private medical clinic, but soon re-qualified as a trader.