11 Nov U.S. announces criminal charges in massive 2014 JPMorgan hack
Federal prosecutors in New York on Tuesday announced expanded criminal charges against three men linked to one of the biggest cybercrime schemes the financial sector has seen.
The operation involved a 2014 hack of JPMorgan Chase that resulted in the loss of more than 80 million customers’ names and e-mail addresses — what prosecutors say is the largest theft of consumer data from a bank in history.
The ring allegedly also hacked other financial companies, including E-Trade and Scottrade, as well as financial news organization Dow Jones, and ran illegal Internet casinos and illicit payment processors.
The victims of the alleged cybercrime spree included financial-services companies in New York, Boston, St. Louis, Omaha and Charlotte, according to a newly unsealed 23-count indictment.
The JPMorgan customer data was used, prosecutors charge, to further a “pump and dump” scheme by which the three men allegedly artificially inflated the prices of penny stocks and then sold them to reap huge profits.
Gery Shalon, Joshua Aaron and Ziv Orenstein allegedly sent millions of spam e-mails to JPMorgan customers touting the penny stocks. Then, after the stocks’ value rose, they allegedly sold their shares, realizing millions of dollars while exposing unsuspecting investors to losses, prosecutors say.