In Switzerland, at the request of the United States, Russian Klyushin accused of fraud was arrested

[Carding]

The prosecutor demanded to sentence Vladislav Klyushin, a Russian citizen found guilty of cyberfraud, to 14 years in prison, follows from the final opinion sent to the Federal Court of Massachusetts regarding a possible punishment (sentencing memorandum).

In addition, the state prosecution insists that Klyushin pay a $5 million fine and indemnify them for damages estimated at more than $8.2 million in total. Finally, the prosecution believes that the court should grant a $36.6 million asset forfeiture petition and foreclose on deposits blocked in Cyprus.

The defense of the Russian, in turn, also sent to the court its final opinion with his characterization, believing that a punishment in the form of imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years would be fair.

Recall that Klyushin was detained in Switzerland, where he came to rest with his family, in March 2021. In December of the same year, he was extradited to the United States.

According to the case file, Klyushin is charged with fraud using electronic means of communication, unauthorized access to a computer and fraud with securities, as well as conspiracy for these purposes.

According to the prosecution, a businessman with accomplices allegedly earned tens of millions of dollars on insider trading, having previously obtained by hacking confidential information about listed companies.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called the Klyushin case politicized, and the arguments of the American side were called "doubtful."

Lawyers demanded that some of the charges against the Russian be dropped, arguing, in particular, that the prosecutor's office, in contradiction with judicial practice and interpretation of these provisions in case cases, overly broadly interprets the article of the law on violation of fiduciary and other similar obligations between securities traders and their clients, putting forward against Klyushin allegations of securities fraud using insider information.

Accordingly, the defense stated in its motion that the items and parts thereof relating to this type of crime should be deleted from the indictment.

However, the American court rejected this petition of the defense.

The jury in February of this year came to the conclusion that the guilt of the Russian in hacking computers, fraud with securities, fraud using electronic means of communication and conspiracy for these purposes was proven.

 

[Father]

The defense of Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin, who was sentenced to 9 years in prison, pointed out a number of violations committed during the trial in a US court.

The trial itself was supposed to take place at least in the state of Illinois or Minnesota, where the hacked computers of Toppan Merrill and Donnelley Financial Solutions were located. Instead, the criminal case was brought and tried in Boston, Massachusetts, essentially a random location, the lawyers argued in a brief sent to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Lawyers also pay attention to the speech, despite the stated objections, during the hearing of the government economist. According to him, the probability that the exchange trading patterns under consideration were random is one in a trillion or nine in a million.

"These testimonies are unacceptable scientific nonsense. There was no need for them, they did not help the jury in any way < ... > On the contrary, they were reprehensible in many ways and simply indicated to the jury how to vote, and should have been excluded," the lawyers say.

Further, the defense draws attention to the mistakes made by the court of first instance in instructing the jury.

Finally, as the defense notes, in the case of Vladislav Klyushin, the prosecution "invented a new type of liability for securities fraud that did not exist before," which is not present in the practice of the Supreme Court or the federal court of the state in which the case was considered.

 

[Friend]

US financial market regulator requests default judgment in 'Klyushin case'.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a motion with a federal court in Massachusetts seeking a default judgment against four Russians accused of involvement in a scheme to trade company securities based on illegally obtained insider information.

The list includes Nikolai Rumyantsev, Mikhail Irzak, Igor Sladkov and Ivan Ermakov.

"The defendants were duly notified, but they did not respond in any way, did not make a statement, and did not defend themselves in any way. The court clerk recorded their failure to appear in accordance with Article 55(a) of the Federal Civil Procedure Code," the motion, which RAPSI has reviewed, says. – Now the SEC respectfully requests that the court enter a default judgment ordering the defendants to refrain from violating federal securities laws in the future, to return their ill-gotten gains plus interest for the period prior to the judgment, and to pay civil monetary penalties in an amount three times the amount of the proceeds of the wrongful conduct”.

In September, Klyushin was sentenced to nine years in prison, while the prosecutor’s office had asked for 14 years, with damages of approximately $2.4 million. An appeal has been filed against the verdict, which is still pending.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called Klyushin’s case politicized, and the American side’s arguments “questionable”.