A group of mainly US-based stock traders and computer hackers in Ukraine made as much as USS100m in illegal profits over five years by conspiring to use information stolen from thousands of corporate press statements before their public release, US authorities have said. Prosecutors announced charges against nine people in an insider-trading case that marks the first time criminal charges have been brought for a securities fraud scheme involving hacked inside information, in this instance 150,000 press releases from distributors Business Wire, Marketwired and PR Newswire. "This is the story of a traditional securities fraud scheme with a twist - one that employed a contemporary approach to a conventional crime," Diego Rodriguez, FBI assistant director-in-charge, said at a news conference.
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