Joshua Samuel Aaron (aka Mike Shields) is wanted for a litany of crimes stemming from a scheme right out of the movies. He and his associates are charged with manipulating stock prices, driving them up artificially, and then dumping them for profit.
The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York called it “the largest theft of customer data from a U.S. financial institution in history.” It included a 2014 breach of JP Morgan’s data and stealing personal info on more than 100 million people.
Aaron was arrested in Russia in October, according to Bloomberg, on immigration charges. He was fined $80 and ordered to leave the country. Since Russia does not have an extradition treaty with the US, his whereabouts are unkown.
Charges Pending
- Conspiracy to Commit Computer Hacking
- Compute Hacking
- Conspiracy to Commit Securities Fraud, Wire Fraud
- ID Document Fraud
- Aggravated Identity Theft
- Money Laundering
Aaron is wanted by the FBI and the Secret Service for his alleged involvement in a scheme to hack major American companies in order to acquire customer contact information. “The scheme, orchestrated from approximately 2007 to mid-2015, used the contact information of millions of American citizens to manipulate the price and volume of traded shares in numerous publicly traded stocks by means of deceptive and misleading email campaigns, and manipulative, prearranged stock trading,” said the FBI.
Aaron allegedly acted as the stock manipulation scheme’s “front-man,” using the alias “Mike Shields” (including false identification and a Social Security Number belonging to another person) to communicate with brokerage companies and co-conspirators. After causing a stock’s price and trading volume to increase artificially during the days or weeks of the email promotional campaign, members of the conspiracy, including Aaron, began dumping, or selling, their shares of the stock in a coordinated fashion, often resulting in huge profits to members of the conspiracy. — FBI
A federal arrest warrant for Joshua Samuel Aaron was issued on June 2, 2015, by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
He’s from Maryland but has ties to Ukraine, Russia, and Tel Aviv.
Aaron ranks #3 on the FBI’s Most Wanted list of cyber crooks.
The rest of the Top 10
Help the FBI catch one of the these Top Ten Most Wanted cyber-criminal groups and you could earn millions in reward money. They go by names like Nae, lucky12345, ethical spectrum, th3 Pr0, and Magg and come from countries including Iran, Russia, Romania, and Syria.
Here’s the top 10.
Paul Dughi.com 