Antivirus News

A pump and dump scam has been publicly uncovered by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The scam involved the manipulation of stock prices by means of using hijacked trading accounts. According to a press release from the SEC Russian national Evgeny Gashichev, owner of Estonian-based and Belize-registered trading firm Grand Logistic, carried out the scam.

The alleged scam was carried out between August and October this year. Mr Gashichev is thought to have pocketed more than $350,000 from at least 25 incidents of pumpimg and dumping stocks. His modus operandi was quite straightforward: he purchased low-priced and low-traded stocks of small companies in the name of his Grand Logistic firm and pumped up their value by using illegally obtained usernames and passwords from other online brokerage accounts. This was done to simulate trading activity and manipulate the price of stocks, which he subsequently sold on at a profit, using the same stolen trading accounts.

The SEC has been investigating the case and has now obtained an asset freeze ruling on Grand Logistic from a federal court in Manhattan. It is unknown how many accounts were actually hijacked by Mr Gashichev, but steps are now being taken to return the funds that were stolen and taken outside the US in the scam operation. His current whereabouts are unknown, but the SEC believes him to be a resident of St. Petersburg, Russia. He is also known to have frequently travelled to Tallinn, Estonia, to carry out his business. The SEC is currently working on the case with its Estonian counterparts. Linda Chatman Thomsen, Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, warned potential fraudsters, “Account intrusions combine securities fraud, identity theft and hacking. Our action today demonstrates, once again, that the Commission will seek out and stop those who would prey on investors, in whatever manner.”