WASHINGTON, July 26 (RIA Novosti) – A Russian citizen living in New York has pleaded guilty to participating in a cybercrime ring that operated a $1 million securities fraud scheme, US officials announced this week.
Petr Murmylyuk, a resident of Brooklyn, pleaded guilty July 23 in a Newark, New Jersey courtroom to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud, the US Attorney’s office for the district of New Jersey said in a statement Tuesday.
According to the statement, Murmylyuk started in November 2011 to work with a team to steal from online trading accounts at the popular US brokerage firms Scottrade, E*Trade, Fidelity and Schwab, among others.
Hackers would access online accounts and then manipulate them to conduct sham trades that benefitted the fraudsters to the detriment of the account owners, the statement said.
Murmylyuk also recruited foreign nationals to open bank accounts into which the illegal funds were deposited. Having pleaded guilty, he now faces a maximum potential penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to officials.
