SEC charges 32 in press release hacking, stock trading scheme

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged 32 defendants with fraud in an international scheme that used stolen, yet-to-be-published press releases from hacked websites to conduct stock trades.

The SEC’s charges are on top of wire fraud conspiracy and other charges announced by the U.S. Department of Justice on Tuesday. The nine DOJ defendants also face SEC charges. The other SEC defendants are eight people and 15 companies.

Indictments unsealed Tuesday in the district courts for New Jersey and Eastern New York accused the DOJ defendants of stealing approximately 150,000 confidential press releases from the servers of Marketwired, PR Newswire Association and Business Wire.

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