Russian Hacker Bags $31 Million in U.S. Brokerage Scam, SEC Says

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It seems Dmitrii Yevgenyevich Kushnarev, a Russian national, has decided to make himself a household name, albeit not in the most flattering of ways. In a stunning display of ambition (or perhaps just sheer audacity), he is now facing serious charges in the U.S. for allegedly orchestrating a multi-year hacking and market manipulation scheme that saw him pocket a cool $31 million. What a showman! 🎩

According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), this wasn’t just a case of a hacker skimming off the top. No, no. Kushnarev hacked into hundreds of retail brokerage accounts, and then, with the finesse of a grifter at an opera, manipulated stock and options prices. By the end of it all, he walked away with $31 million in gross proceeds and a tidy $1.5 million in net profits. Not bad for a few years of playing with other people’s money, eh? 💰

His operation, which stretched from 2014 to 2021, was something straight out of a spy novel. Using over 20 fake identities, Kushnarev opened more than 100 U.S. and foreign bank and brokerage accounts. It was like a game of “who can fool the most people” – and spoiler alert: he won. He’d buy up low-volume stocks with compromised accounts and pump up the prices like a balloon at a children’s party, only to cash out later. A real maestro! 🎭

Manipulation of stocks and options

During the first part of his reign, from 2014 to 2019, Kushnarev’s favorite pastime was manipulating equity securities with low trading volumes. While the hackers played their part, Kushnarev used his newly acquired powers to inflate stock prices at prominent U.S. brokerages. And in 2019, he decided to up his game: moving on to options. A real trendsetter! He allegedly sold out-of-the-money call and put options to hacked accounts, which were compelled to place artificially inflated bids. Because who doesn’t like a good pump and dump, right? 📈

The SEC’s complaint has found its way to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Not content with mere hacking, Kushnarev has been charged with multiple violations, including fraud provisions from the Securities Act of 1933, and let’s not forget Section 9(a)(2) of the Exchange Act. A veritable buffet of crimes! 🥳

Broader fraud concerns

Meanwhile, U.S. lawmakers are not sitting idly by, as the fraud epidemic seems to be gaining ground. Senator Cynthia Lummis took to X (formerly Twitter) to highlight the increase in Bitcoin ATM scams. With the Cheyenne police reporting 50 such cases amounting to a staggering $645,000, it’s clear that some folks have figured out that the best way to “mine” crypto is to scam the unsuspecting public. 🖥️

This is something that has concerned me for a long time, and @SenGillibrand and I first introduced legislation stopping bad actors in the crypto kiosk space in 2023. This is just one of the issues we hope to address in market structure.

– Senator Cynthia Lummis (@SenLummis) September 22, 2025

In 2024 alone, the FBI confirmed over 11,000 reports of crypto kiosk scams, costing victims nearly $246 million. Looks like the digital gold rush isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. It’s a wild west out there, and regulators are under increasing pressure to keep the unsuspecting masses from getting burned. 🔥

So, while Kushnarev is allegedly out there playing financial chess with stolen accounts, the rest of us are left wondering if any of us can ever trust a stock price again. Ah, the joys of modern finance! 😅

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2025-09-29 16:13