Authorities charged Robert Westbrook on Friday with multiple counts of fraud after evidence showed he allegedly hacked the emails of senior executives from at least five U.S.-based companies and read their inboxes. Westbrook, 39, is accused of then trading ahead of the companies’ earnings results, reaping millions in illicit profits.
According to a U.S. district court indictment and a concurrent complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the hack-to-trade scheme followed a similar pattern at each of the five targets he chose. The London-based executive—who claimed to have attended the University of Oxford—would first reset a senior executive’s computer system password, then use the new login to hack their Microsoft Office 365 account and Microsoft Outlook email box.
