UK national hacked public companies for stock trading intel, DOJ says

A U.K. national is facing charges for allegedly hacking into five public companies and stealing information about corporate earnings that helped him net about $3.75 million from stock trades.

Robert Westbrook, 39, was arrested in the U.K. this week, according to the Justice Department. The U.S. is seeking his extradition on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and computer fraud. 

He is accused of breaking into the companies’ systems between January 2019 and August 2020 and stealing information ahead of 14 different earnings announcements. 

He allegedly broke into the systems by resetting the passwords of Office365 email accounts owned by senior-level executives, according to a corresponding civil filing by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

Westbrook then used the information he gleaned from those accounts to buy or sell stock ahead of the published earnings reports. 

“On several occasions, Westbrook implemented auto-forwarding rules designed to automatically forward content from the corporate executives’ compromised email accounts to email accounts controlled by Westbrook,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey explained.

If convicted, Westbrook faces decades in prison for each charge. 

Jorge Tenreiro, acting chief of the SEC’s crypto assets and cyber unit, said Westbrook tried to conceal his identity by using anonymous email accounts, VPN services and Bitcoin trades. 

The SEC said it wants Westbrook to pay undisclosed civil penalties and return the $3.75 million made through the illicit stock trades.   

In another recent hack-and-trade case, Russian national Vladislav Klyushin was sentenced to nine years in prison last September for a scheme that netted about $93 million through securities trades. Klyushin was included in the prisoner exchange with Russia that freed Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, veteran Paul Whelan and Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva.