Russian hacker found guilty

The Kremlin-connected Russian tech businessman who prosecutors said directed a $90 million hacking scheme to make illegal stock trades on U.S. companies based on non-public information has been found guilty of all counts against him.

Vladislav Klyushin, 42, of Moscow, Russia, was convicted Tuesday by a jury in federal court in Boston on charges of conspiring to obtain unauthorized access to computers, conspiring to commit wire fraud and conspiracies fraud and of obtaining unauthorized access to computers, wire fraud and conspiracies fraud.

“The jury saw Mr. Klyushin for exactly what he is — a cybercriminal and a cheat. He repeatedly gamed the system and finally got caught. Now he is a convicted felon,” said U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins following the verdict. “For nearly three years, he and his co-conspirators repeatedly hacked into U.S. computer networks to obtain tomorrow’s headlines today.”

Klyushin was a director at M-13, a Moscow-based technology company that specialized in white hat hacking services — meaning they did penetration testing for, and protections against found security vulnerabilities of, computer systems of various companies and organizations, including the national and regional governmental organizations in Russia, including the office of President Vladimir Putin himself.

Prosecutors said that he used his role to direct a subset of the company’s computer experts to hack into vendors that file legally required quarterly and annual financial reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and thus obtain that information ahead of the public.

Klyushin, as the Herald previously reported, was nabbed in Switzerland during a March 2021 ski trip and then extradited to the U.S. Four other M-13 employees have been charged in the conspiracy across two different cases.