DOJ Unseals Indictment Against Individuals for Alleged Involvement in Hacks Against Various U.S. Institutions

DOJ Payment Processors Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security

On November 10, the DOJ unsealed an indictment against three individuals, Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron and Ziv Orenstein, for allegedly orchestrating and committing computer hacking crimes against U.S. financial institutions, brokerage firms, and financial news publishers. According to the DOJ, “these three defendants perpetrated one of the largest thefts of financial-related data in history – making off with the sensitive information of literally thousands” of Americans. The DOJ alleges that, from approximately 2012 to mid-2015, Shalon and Aaaron hacked financial institutions to steal the personal information of more than 100 million customers, and then manipulated the price of certain U.S. publicly traded stocks, seeking to “market the stocks, in a deceptive and misleading manner, to customers of the victim companies whose contact information they had stolen in the intrusion.” Additionally, Shalon engaged in illegal businesses with Orenstein between 2007 and July 2015, allegedly operating (i) unlawful internet gambling businesses; (ii) multinational payment processors for illegal pharmaceutical suppliers, counterfeit and malicious software distributors, and unlawful internet casinos; and (iii) Coin.mx, a Bitcoin exchange company that violated federal anti-money laundering laws. Through the defendants’ schemes, they profited hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal funds and, using aliases, laundered criminal proceeds through at least 75 international shell companies and bank and brokerage accounts. The defendants are charged with multiple counts of offenses, including conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, aggravated identity theft, wire fraud and operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business.

The DOJ also announced the unsealing of a separate indictment against Anthony R. Murgio, who was arrested on complaint in July for operating Coin.mx in the United States.