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A
federal judge issued an emergency order freezing assets
belonging to the defendant, Idris Dayo Mustapha, the SEC said on
Wednesday, shortly after filing its civil lawsuit with the U.S.
District Court in Manhattan.
It was unclear whether Mustapha had a lawyer. He could not
immediately be reached for comment.
According to court papers, Mustapha caused the hijacked accounts
to buy more than $5 million of mostly little-known stocks in
April and May, and coordinated his trading to sell the stocks at
about the same time.
The SEC said Mustapha, 30, generated at least $68,000 of profit,
while costing his unwitting victims about $289,000.
It said five victims held accounts with a broker in New Jersey,
while four had accounts at foreign brokerage firms.
Mustapha was charged with securities fraud. The SEC is seeking
to recoup ill-gotten gains and impose civil fines.
"We will swiftly track down hackers who prey on investors as we
allege Mustapha did, no matter where they are operating from and
no matter how sophisticated their technology," Robert Cohen,
co-chief of the SEC enforcement division's market abuse unit,
said in a statement.
The case is SEC v Mustapha, U.S. District Court, Southern
District of New York, No. 16-04805.
(Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by David
Gregorio)
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