ASIC wins fight against cyber breach with $77K recovered
Over $77,000 will be restrained by Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) following a joint operation with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) into the hacking of online accounts of retail investors, according to a ruling by the Supreme Court of NSW yesterday.
The operation, titled Operation Emerald, investigated an internet hacking, market manipulation and money laundering scheme involving a client account held overseas that traded through Morgan Stanley Australia Securities Limited.
ASIC Commissioner, Cathie Armour, said that ASIC were determined to combat the threat of cyber-crime and suspicious trading activity, particularly when Australian retail investors were compromised.
"ASIC has a world-class surveillance system to gather, match and analyse data to uncover misconduct, and its staff continue to monitor and detect suspicious trading activity and work with market participants to ensure account hacking is swiftly identified and stopped," she said.
ASIC's investigation discovered that the unauthorised trades were made by a Russian hacker who hacked into a number of retail client accounts held with Commonwealth Securities Limited, Etrade Australia and Australian Investment Exchange Limited.
The suspected hacker targeted 13 penny stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and traded them in such a way that he created an artificially inflated price.
Consequently, the hacker traded out of the positions and collected the profits generated.
The illicit trades, which occurred between 18 August 2014 and 21 October last year, were detected by ASIC's surveillance team and immediate action was taken to prevent the profits from being distributed.
According to the Corporations Act 2001, such breaches and forms of market manipulation can carry penalties of up to 10 years in gaol.
AFP Proceeds of Crime Litigation team manager, David Gray, said the result of this joint investigation should serve as a strong reminder to those who wish to conduct illegal money laundering activities in Australia.
"Despite efforts by criminals to evade detection, the AFP and its law enforcement partners remain committed to taking the profits out of crime and will take every opportunity to stop criminals from reinvesting these profits to fund other criminal ventures," he said.
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