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Almost four years after the lights went out at AlphaBay, the federal government is still accusing people of criminal activity related to the dark web market. On Friday, the SEC and the Justice Department announced charges against Apostolos Trovias, a Greek national who they say posted to dark web markets using the nickname “The Bull.”
However, unlike drug traffickers targeted in previous actions, authorities allege that Trovias used dark web forums as a means of trolling people eager to buy or sell insider trading information while in hiding. behind “anonymization software, screen names and bitcoin payments”.
On AlphaBay and other dark websites like Dream Market or Nightmare Market, the indictment alleges that Trovias offered and ultimately sold stock tips. However, as described in the complaint (PDF), his clients included at least one IRS agent and one FBI agent working undercover. In 2017, the document alleges that Trovias gave the IRS agent pre-release information on at least two occasions in exchange for Bitcoin. The information came from the quarterly earnings reports for Illumina and Analogic, although the documents indicate that Trovias mixed up some of the data on one of the reports.
Between December 2016 or around this date, the date on which he registered on the site, and July 2017 or around this date, when AlphaBay ceased its activities, APOSTOLOS TROVIAS, a / k / a “The Bull”, the defendant , offered for sale, among other places, the category “Fraud> Other> Other” on AlphaBay, stock market advice based on non-public inside information about certain issuers of securities and which could be purchased individually, on a weekly or monthly basis for prices ranging from around $ 29.95 per tip to around $ 329.95 for a monthly tip subscription based on non-public inside information.
6. Between or around December 2016, the date on which APOSTOLOS TROVIAS, a / k / a “The Bull”, the defendant, registered his account, and around July 2017, the date on which AlphaBay ceased its activities, TROVIAS has completed the sale of dozens of individual tips, about three weekly packages and about three monthly packages, for a total of about 45 transactions on the AlphaBay marketplace.
7. Also around 2017, APOSTOLOS TROVAS, a / k / a “The Bull”, the defendant, offered for sale and sold, among other confidential information belonging to various issuers of securities, for approximately $ 5,000 in Bitcoin , at least a backhanded pre-publication earnings report from a listed company.
Until 2020, authorities claimed that Trovias was trying to build his own dark website, likely because the markets he used kept shutting down. The SEC and DOJ documents do not mention the man’s arrest. however, PCMag.com underlines a document of May 27 continuing his extradition after his arrest in Peru. The DOJ charged him with one count of securities fraud carrying a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, as well as one count of money laundering with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
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