A few days ago, the SEC announced charges against 18 defendants in an international scheme to manipulate stocks using hacked US brokerage accounts.
In February of 2021, I hosted a webinar where we simulated a cyber attack on a hedge fund to show how hackers could potentially compromise brokerage accounts and make money in micro-caps by counter-trading the buy-orders stemming from the hacked accounts.
Below is a recording of that webinar if you are interested in understanding the mechanics of how this attack might have been conducted:
The SEC’s complaint alleges that hackers accessed at least 31 US retail brokerage accounts in late 2017 and early 2018, using them to purchase the securities of Lotus Bio-Technology Development Corp. and Good Gaming, Inc.
The illegal purchases allowed con-artists, who already had a lot of Lotus Bio-Tech and Good Gaming stock, to sell their inventory at higher than normal prices and make more than $1 million in illicit proceeds.
According to the complaint, Davies Wong of British Columbia, Canada, and Glenn B. Laken of Illinois controlled the majority of the Lotus Bio-Tech and Good Gaming stock that was sold while Mohamed coordinated with Wong, Laken, and others to illegally carry out online attacks to artificially manipulate market prices.The complaint claims that Richard Tang of British Columbia, Canada, was a member of both the Lotus Bio-Tech and Good Gaming frauds.