A man from Georgia admitted Tuesday to his role in an insider-trading scheme that netted $30 million based on key inform𝔉ation from hacked press releases.
Leonid Momotok, 48, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud for using the stolen corꦯporate press releases 🍰to trade ahead of their publication.
“I profited from these trades. It was baꦗd judgment and I am very sorry,” he told Brooklyn federal court Judge Ramon Reyes.
Hackers in the Ukraine gained access to more than 150,000 releases containing quarterly reports and disseminated the information to traders like Momotok, a🍬 US citizen who lives in Suwanee, Georgia.
The infiltr꧑ators targeted three major companies Marketwired LP, PR Newswire Association LLC and Business Wire.
Some of them were caught discussing🎀 their illegal activity in Russian in online messages.
“I’m hacking prnewswire.com,” one of t꧋hem wrote to a cohort.
Hackers said in♒ another chat that they compromised the log-in credentials of 15 Business Wire emploꦬyees.
Meanwhile, traders would create “wish lists” for certain p♒ress releases for publicly traded companies, authoriti♍es said.
Momotok was arrested last year along with eight others, including Pennsylvania pastor Vitaly Korchevsky, who was partne﷽rs with the alleged mastermind of the scheme.
Korchevsky is still fighting the charges.
Momotok fa♔ces betw🦩een 6 1/2 and 8 years behind bars at his sentencing in December.
His attorney had no comment.