A US citizen wanted in connection with the massive stock manipulation scheme linked to the breach of over 100 million JPMorgan Chase and other customer records is reportedly in a Russian jail for illegal immigrants.
Joshua Aaron is the only American of a trio indicted in July 2015 for pump-and-dump schemes said to have made them millions of dollars.
They’re accused of making their fortune by artificially inflating the price of penny stocks by spamming out promotional emails and then selling their shares.
It’s believed that the group were involved in hacking JPMorgan and other Wall Street firms for info they could use to make their schemes more effective.
Investigators had originally suspected Russian involvement in the JPMorgan attack and Aaron and former Florida State University classmate, Anthony Murgio, are known to have traveled there frequently.
Now Bloomberg is reporting that Aaron, 32, was detained back in May after breaking the rules of his three-year visa.
His lawyers are now in talks with US prosecutors, although Russia has no extradition treaty with the States so presumably if deported he could leave for another country.
The situation highlights the problem US officials have in dealing with Russia when it comes to cybersecurity matters.
The diplomatic relationship between the two could be described as ‘frosty’ at best, despite an agreement struck between presidents Obama and Putin to co-operate against cybercriminals.
That’s not been helped by Washington’s assertion that Russia has been behind attempts to destabilize the country’s electoral process ahead of the presidential showdown next month.
It’s more than likely that there are members of Aaron’s group that are Russian nationals – another reason for the Kremlin to be reluctant to co-operate in this case.
By contrast, Aaron’s alleged co-conspirators Gery Shalon and Ziv Orenstein were arrested by Israeli police last summer and extradited to New York in July this year.