WASHINGTON – The White House announced Thursday a major multinational prisoner exchange between the United States, Russia and other countries. As part of a historic agreement, the Russian government released prominent Americans held locally, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who had been held in Russian prisons for more than a year. .
The deal also involved a number of Russian nationals arrested and imprisoned in the United States and other countries for various crimes.
Among the group was a wealthy young Russian entrepreneur named Vladislav Klyushin. He was in federal prison for his role in one of the most damaging insider trading schemes in Wall Street history.
CNBC has spent much of the past year working on a documentary about Klyushin and the dramatic rise and fall of his business empire.
The story begins in early 2021, when a private jet carrying an up-and-coming young Russian oligarch and his wife lands at the small Sion airport high in the Swiss Alps.
Vladislav Kryushin, the owner of an IT company with ties to the Russian government, appears in an undated photo attached to a U.S. Justice Department filing.
US Department of Justice | via Reuters
Sion is the gateway to Zermatt, a famous ski resort where the world’s elite come to ski and party. But the airport is still an hour’s drive from the slopes, so the truly wealthy walk across the tarmac and board a helicopter to take them directly to their resort.
The young oligarch was at the absolute pinnacle of his power. He had founded a highly successful company in Moscow and had connections at the highest levels of the Russian government.
Vladislav Kryushin sentenced to nine years in American prison for $93 million hack-to-trade conspiracy. Source: Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office
Source: Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office
His efforts earned him the ultimate prize. He worked in the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
What the oligarch did not know was that American law enforcement had been monitoring his plane since it left Moscow.
Or perhaps they were planning to arrest him and charge him with crimes that cut into the heart of America’s financial system.
The man on board the Swiss private jet was Vladislav Kryushin, who ran a Moscow-based cybersecurity company called M-13.
But M-13 was a front for Krusin’s real business, hacking into American companies to steal sensitive information and using it to trade on Wall Street before it became public.
Arrow pointing outside zoom in icon
The home page of M-13, a Russian cybersecurity company that stole financial information from American companies.
Source: Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office
It was a multilayered crime of illegal insider trading made possible by illegal hacking. And thanks to this, Klyushin became very rich. The victims of his crimes are investors in iconic American companies such as Tesla, Roku, and Skechers.
Welcome to the dangerous underworld of the global financial system. Here, markets are just another arena for great powers to project their power and undermine their rivals.
The Kremlin considers America’s capital markets to be one of the country’s key strengths and therefore a prime target.
“It’s a war that’s going on between Russia and the West. Finance, banks and the financial sector itself are just one of the battlegrounds,” said a former senior official in Russia’s Federal Security Service’s intelligence service. CNBC granted him anonymity to detail these crimes out of concern for his safety.
CNBC’s Eamonn Javers spoke to a former Russian spy who requested anonymity about the Klyushin incident.
CNBC
CNBC has spent months investigating this criminal network, which amounts to one of the most damaging insider trading cases in Wall Street history.
But it’s not over yet.
On the contrary, our report revealed a persistent and continuing threat to American businesses, investors, and the market itself.
The result of this year-long project is the documentary mentioned above called “Putin’s Traders.” Featuring exclusive access to the FBI agents and U.S. prosecutors charged with destroying the criminal organization, and new reporting on the surprising lifestyles of the oligarchs and their friends who profited from illegal trade. . A limited podcast series called “Crimes of Putin’s Traders” will be released on August 15th.
U.S. Attorney Stephen Frank said Klyushin is “much like the kinds of people who are prosecuted every day for white-collar crimes here in the United States. People who don’t have to resort to white-collar crimes.” To succeed, because they are already successful. ”
“He was wealthy. He had a very nice house. He had a very nice car. He had a house in the country,” said Frank, who worked on the case. “But like many defendants, he wanted more money and found an easy way to get it. And he got it.”
For the full story, see “Putin’s Trader.”
