A native of India has been sentenced to nearly seven years in federal prison for hacking into online brokerage accounts and committing securities fraud.
Jaisankar Marimuthu, 36, a native of Chennai, India, also was ordered Monday by U.S. District Magistrate Judge F.A. Gossett III to pay $2.4 million in restitution to his victims — some 60 people and nine brokerage firms, including Omaha's own TD Ameritrade.
Federal prosecutors have said the victims were defrauded of thousands, if not millions, of dollars by Marimuthu and two men.
The three were accused of using their personal online brokerage accounts in Thailand and India to buy extremely cheap stocks. Then, they stole the usernames and passwords of victims' accounts and used them to buy hundreds of the same stocks — driving up the market price, according to court documents.
The men then would sell their original shares for a hefty profit.
Marimuthu was flown to Nebraska fresh off a roughly three-year prison stint in Hong Kong after being convicted there on unrelated charges of computer fraud, money laundering and possession of equipment to make a false instrument.
In Omaha, he pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, computer fraud and aggravated identity theft, and to one count of aggravated identity theft.
Co-defendant Thirugnanam Ramanathan was arrested by Hong Kong authorities in January 2007 and eventually pleaded guilty in a Nebraska federal district court to conspiracy to commit computer and securities fraud. He was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of supervised release.
Chockalingam Ramanathan, the third person accused in the scheme, remains at large.
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