U.S. Catches Kremlin Insider Who May Have Secrets of 2016 Hack

[FM123]

* I can't imagine that Trumpy's old buddy Putin is very happy about this....

(Bloomberg) In the days before Christmas, U.S. officials in Boston unveiled insider trading charges against a Russian tech tycoon they had been pursuing for months. They accused Vladislav Klyushin, who’d been extradited from Switzerland on Dec. 18, of illegally making tens of millions of dollars trading on hacked corporate-earnings information.

Yet as authorities laid out their securities fraud case, a striking portrait of the detainee emerged: Klyushin was not only an accused insider trader, but a Kremlin insider. He ran an information technology company that works with the Russian government’s top echelons. Just 18 months earlier, Klyushin received a medal of honor from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The U.S. had, in its custody, the highest-level Kremlin insider handed to U.S. law enforcement in recent memory.

Klyushin’s cybersecurity work and Kremlin ties could make him a useful source of information for U.S. officials, according to several people familiar with Russian intelligence matters. Most critically, these people said, if he chooses to cooperate, he could provide Americans with their closest view yet of 2016 election manipulation.

(Read More) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-03/kremlin-insider-klyushin-is-said-to-have-2016-hack-details

[czarjak]

1. "Russia, if you're listening", " Russia's a ruse"? Nyet collusion though!

[UTUSN]

2. K&R

[C_U_L8R]

3. No wonder Pootie wanted to chat.

[OAITW r.2.0]

4. He ties Trump to Putin.

Let the next impeachment start. I know, he is out of Office,,,but is there a shelf life for treason?

[Baked Potato]

5. D'OH !!

[monkeyman1]

6. If he testifies against TFG & repub's , buy him some vodka!!

[Hotler]

7. Lock him in a room and play the Kars for Kids song over and over and over.....

he'll talk.

[msfiddlestix]

8. Tied to Persons named as defendant in Mueller indictment

Yerkomov is one of 11 defendants in Mueller's indictment


excerpt:

Indications of Klyushin’s vantage point are peppered throughout U.S. filings. His IT firm, M-13, worked for the Russian presidency, government and ministries, according to his insider trading indictment. Among his subordinates was a former military intelligence official named Ivan Yermakov, who is charged alongside Klyushin in the indictment. Yermakov is also a defendant in a 2018 indictment from U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team that accuses him and 11 other Russians of hacking into Democrats’ computers systems. That case has yet to be resolved because its defendants remain outside the U.S., but prosecutors could pursue and expand that case if new inform[

[msfiddlestix]

9. This story is a very BFD.

There's a LOT of intriguing information in this report. Important on Domestic (elections meddling/insider trading etc) and international matters. Federal Grand Jury Indictments earlier in the year. arrests in Switzerland using exceptionally high security procedures... complicated with on going talks with Moscow etc etc etc.

I haven't even finished reading the article... this is way up there of Breaking News Importance.

Hope it gets a whole more attention.

Bravo FM123..

please consider adding more excepts down thread.

[FM123]

10. Yes, that is a good idea.

Very long article, but worth the read.

[FM123]

11. More excerpts:

According to these accounts, Klyushin was approached by U.S. and U.K. spy agencies in the two years before his exit from Russia and received heightened levels of security in Switzerland. He also missed a final chance to appeal his extradition, an omission that baffled many observers in Moscow. His transfer to the U.S. represents a serious intelligence blow to the Kremlin, several of the people said, one that would deepen if Klyushin decides to seek leniency from U.S. prosecutors by providing information about Moscow’s inner workings.

(perhaps Putin is worried this guy will defect?)

[FM123]

12. More excerpts:

Klyushin’s extradition suggests that federal law enforcers haven’t dropped their pursuit of “the radical violation of U.S. sovereignty during the 2016 elections that involved criminal behavior,” according to Michael McFaul, who was a U.S. ambassador to Russia during the Obama administration.

“You may be seeing the signs that they are continuing to pursue this case, with real big implications for exposing in even greater detail what the Russians did to influence the outcome of our election,” McFaul said. He added that Klyushin’s extradition is a “serious concern” for the Russian government. “It underscores the risk that anybody, billionaires or others close to the Russian state, face when they break American laws if they travel abroad,” he said.

[MerryBlooms]

13. r&k!

[FM123]

14. Excerpt:

Soon after came an international diplomatic snarl that speaks to Klyushin’s importance to Moscow. Following a Russia-U.S. presidential summit in June, the two sides were negotiating to swap two former U.S. Marines imprisoned in Russia, Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed, for two Russians held in the U.S., including notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout. But after Switzerland declined to hand Klyushin back to Russia, the Kremlin demanded that his name be added to the swap, according to three people with knowledge of the issue. That derailed the potential exchange, which remains blocked, these people said.

There is no link between Klyushin and the return of Reed and Whelan to the U.S., said a U.S. National Security Council spokesperson. The U.S. government continues to press for their release, the spokesperson said.

Klyushin’s chances of a trip to the U.S. grew when the Swiss supreme court refused to consider an appeal against his extradition, saying it had no reason to challenge the legitimacy of the U.S. courts. The panel made its ruling in a Dec. 10 session, which was communicated to Ciric on Dec. 16, according to him and the court. Once Switzerland’s top court refuses an appeal, detainees can be handed over within two to four days, Ciric said in an interview a month before the ruling.