“He thought he could get away with his crimes by perpetrating them from a foreign base, hidden behind layers of fake domain names, virtual private networks, and computer servers rented under pseudonyms and paid for with cryptocurrency,” acting Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Josh Levy said in an emailed statement. “He found out otherwise, and will now spend nearly a decade of his life in a U.S. prison.
“Hackers will be watching this sentence to decide whether it’s wroth engaging in this kind of conduct,” Kosto said. Armed with insider information, they were able to cheat the stock market, buying shares of a company that was about to release positive financial results, and selling shares of a company that was about to post poor financial results, according to prosecutors. Many of the earnings reports were downloaded via a computer server in Boston, prosecutors said.