Feds indict ‘The Bull’ for selling insider trading info on the dark web
Richard Lawler, 10 July 2021
Nearly four years after the lights went out at AlphaBay, the feds are still charging people with criminal activities linked to the dark web marketplace. On Friday the SEC and the Department of Justice announced charges against Apostolos Trovias, a Greek national who they allege posted on dark web marketplaces using the nickname “The Bull.”
However, unlike drug dealers targeted in previous actions, the authorities allege Trovias used dark web forums as a way to troll for people willing to buy or sell insider trading information while hiding behind “anonymizing software, screen names, and bitcoin payments.”
On AlphaBay and other dark web sites like Dream Market or Nightmare Market, the indictment alleges Trovias offered and eventually sold stock tips. However, as the complaint describes (PDF) his customers included at least one IRS agent and an FBI agent working undercover. In 2017, the document alleges Trovias gave the IRS agent pre-release info from earnings releases on at least two occasions in exchange for Bitcoin. The information came from quarterly earnings reports for Illumina and Analogic, although the documents indicate Trovias mixed up some of the data on one of the reports.
