Russian accused of stock hacking denies allegations

The SEC is pursuing the case through the civil courts

The Russian at the centre of allegations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of stock price manipulation using hacked trading accounts has denied the claims.

Valery Maltsev, president of BroCo, said that he was not behind the plan to manipulate stock prices by using stolen stock trading accounts. The company says it has investigated the claims and has identified the perpetrator, who is a client.

“I underline that neither me no BroCo are associated with trading on this specific account,” Maltsev wrote in a letter to V3.co.uk.

“The account suspected in price manipulation in market belongs to a client of the company. The client performed his own trading and traded at his own responsibility. Thus BroCo is not associated with trading on above-mentioned account,” he wrote.

The SEC is claiming the price manipulation netted Maltsev $255,532 and cost the US investors whose accounts had been hacked $603,000. However, Maltsev disputes both these figures and the SEC’s account of what occurred.

He said he had no idea where those figures were arrived at, nor why the owners of the accounts didn’t notice such large transfers taking place. He also questions why the police have not been informed and why the SEC is undertaking a civil trial not a criminal one.

“Accounts were intruded, a hacker robbed it, he has been robbing for six months – and no one gave a ring to the police? No one saw anything, hear anything. No one understood what was going on,” he continued.

“And Scottrade investors didn't even see that the money was going out of their accounts, they were not noticing that for six months! I can't understand that. And if SEC will not conduct an investigation on this case, Broco will.”

The company will be attempting to get its accounts unfrozen, he said, and will fight to clear its name.

The SEC was unavailable for comment.