A British man, Robert Westbrook, 39, of London, has been arrested and charged by U.S. authorities for allegedly hacking into the computers of five companies to obtain sensitive earnings information.
He reportedly made $3.75 million in illegal profits by trading on this insider information before the results were publicly released.
The U.S. Department of Justice plans to seek Westbrook’s extradition to face charges including securities fraud, wire fraud, and five counts of computer fraud, as detailed in a criminal indictment made public on Friday. Westbrook was apprehended this week in the United Kingdom and is also facing civil charges from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. His lawyer has not been publicly identified.
While the companies involved were not named in court documents, financial details suggest they may include Tupperware, Tutor Perini, Guidewire Software, Murphy USA, and Lumentum Holdings.
Authorities stated that Westbrook’s “hack-to-trade” scheme allowed him to access executives’ email accounts between January 2019 and May 2020. He allegedly used this material nonpublic information to buy stocks and options ahead of at least 14 earnings announcements. In several instances, he set up rules to automatically forward content from these email accounts to his own.
Jorge Tenreiro, acting chief of the SEC’s crypto assets and cyber unit, described Westbrook’s actions as “sophisticated international hacking,” utilizing anonymous email accounts, VPN services, and bitcoin to mask his activities. None of the companies involved have been accused of any wrongdoing.
If convicted, Westbrook faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years for each securities fraud and wire fraud charge, and up to five years for each computer fraud charge.
