A wealthy Russian businessman and associates made tens of millions of dollars by cheating the stock market in an elaborate scheme that involved hacking into US computer networks to steal insider information about companies such as Microsoft and Tesla, a prosecutor has told jurors.
Vladislav Klyushin, the owner of a Moscow-based information technology company with ties to the upper levels of the Russian government, is on trial in a Boston federal court nearly two years after he was arrested after landing in Switzerland on a private jet for a skiing trip.
He is the only Russian national charged in the nearly 90 million dollar scheme who has been arrested and extradited to the US. Four accused co-conspirators – including a Russian military intelligence officer who has also been charged with meddling in the 2016 presidential election – remain at large.
