DOJ Indicts 3 Men for Alleged Hacking into 'Prominent' Law Firms, Insider Trading
A Macau man arrested Christmas Day in Hong Kong and awaiting extradition to the U.S. and two other defendants face computer intrusion, insider trading and wire fraud charges for allegedly stealing proprietary information hacked from networks and servers of several…
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"prominent" New York City law firms, said DOJ in a Tuesday news release. Justice unsealed a 13-count superseding indictment against Iat Hong, Bo Zheng and Chin Hung, who allegedly targeted at least seven unidentified law firms and other organizations from April 2014 through late 2015, the release said. DOJ said the defendants targeted email accounts at the firms, which worked on high-profile merger-and-acquisition transactions, and then, based on inside information, bought stock in certain companies, "which were expected to, and typically did, increase in value once the transactions were announced." Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said the defendants made more than $4 million in illegal profits. "This case of cyber meets securities fraud should serve as a wake-up call for law firms around the world: you are and will be targets of cyber hacking, because you have information valuable to would-be criminals,” he said. Hong, 25, was arrested Sunday and is going through extradition proceedings, but DOJ didn't provide the status of 50-year-old Hung, a Macau resident, and Zheng, a 30-year-old resident of China.