Trio Indicted in Cybercrime Scheme Including JPMorgan Hack (Nov. 11, 2015)
Federal prosecutors have charged a trio of accused cybercriminals in a wide-ranging hacking and fraud scheme Attorney General Loretta Lynch called “one of the largest thefts of financial-related data in history.” Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron and Ziv Orenstein were named yesterday in a 23-count indictment alleging crimes dating back to 2007 and affecting 12 companies, including nine financial services firms.
The hacks exposed the data of more than 100 million people—including 83 million in the JPMorgan attack last year—but the criminals’ aims didn’t appear to be connected to identity theft. Instead, the indictment alleges, the trio used email addresses obtained in the hacks to contact potential securities buyers in a scheme to artificially raise the price of certain stocks in a “pump-and-dump” scheme. The indictment also includes charges related to payment processing for criminals, illegal bitcoin exchanges and money laundering. Shalon and Orenstein, both of Israel, were arrested in July. The third defendant, Aaron, a U.S. citizen who lives in Israel and Moscow, remains at large and is wanted by the FBI.
The charges are the first related to the 2014 data breach against JPMorgan, and the bank reiterated this week that no customer financial information or Social Security numbers were compromised in the hack.
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