A Russian businessman is convicted on US hacking charges.

a jury of USA sentenced a wealthy Russian businessman and other people linked to the kremlin for having made tens of millions of dollars hacking into computer networks to obtain privileged and secret data about multiple companies they used to conduct business.

Vladislav Klyushinwho owns a Moscow-based information technology company called M-13 and did work for the Russian government, was convicted Tuesday by a federal jury in Boston on charges of conspiracy, wire fraud and securities fraud. the prosecution reported.

Of the five Russian citizens charged with carrying out the nearly $90 million scam, Klyushin, 42, was the only one on trial after being arrested in Switzerland during a ski trip in March 2021 and extradited to the United States.

READ ALSO: The Economist: the relationship between artificial intelligence and humans

The other four remain at large, including Ivan Ermakov, a former Russian military intelligence officer who worked in the M-13 and is wanted by Washington for alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election and targeting anti-doping agencies.

The trial came at a low point in US-Russian relations following the invasion of Ukraine last year. Although the allegations predate the war, Klyushin’s connections to the Kremlin have long intrigued the United States.

The defense asserted that there was no evidence that their client had any inside information or that he knew of any hacking. His lawyer in Switzerland, Oliver Ciric, argued that the reason for charging him was his ties to the Russian government and that American and British intelligence tried to recruit him.

LOOK HERE: United States: AIM-9X Sidewinder missile used to shoot down unidentified flying objects

Prosecutors said Klyushin and his associates broke into the networks of two firms that help publicly traded companies file reports with US securities regulators, Donnelley Financial Solutions and Toppan Merrill.

Between 2018 and 2020, hackers viewed and downloaded as-yet-unannounced earnings reports from hundreds of companies, including Tesla Inc and Microsoft Corp, that Klyushin and others used to operate before the news became public.

Source: Reuters