Securities: $3 Million Frozen in Cyber Fraud Case

$3 million, belonging to an Eastern European cyber-ring involved in an online stock manipulation case, has been ordered frozen by a federal judge. The members of the ring live in Russia, Latvia, Lithuania and the British Virgin Islands. From at least December 2005 to December 2006 the group managed to gain at least $733,000 in a complex scheme that combined hacking with "pump-and-dump" market manipulation, said the Securities and Exchange Commission.

$3 Million Frozen in Cyber-Fraud Case

The hackers were able to hide their path by hijacking Internet protocol addresses of unrelated third parties across the United States. The ring's money is kept in 75 accounts managed by a Raleigh, N.C. securities broker and the $3 million represents the profit that the hackers made and the brokerages' loss to refund clients.