United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara speaking at a news conference where he announced charges against three individuals for offenses related to the computer hacking of numerous financial institutions, financial news publishers, and other companies in New York City, Nov. 10, 2015. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
NEW YORK (JTA) — Three Jewish men, two of them Israeli citizens, are among those charged with hacking the website of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and stealing hundreds of millions of dollars.
The indictments of Gery Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron and Ziv Orenstein in U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York were unsealed Tuesday. The 23-count indictment encompasses the Chase hack along with numerous alleged crimes targeting 12 other companies, including nine financial service companies and The Wall Street Journal, Reuters reported.
Prosecutors said the three had been working together since 2007 and that their crimes include artificially inflating stock prices, an illegal bitcoin exchange, operating online casinos and creating at least 75 shell companies around the world.
“By any measure, the data breaches at these firms were breathtaking in scope and in size,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a news conference.
According to Reuters, Tuesday’s charges are the first tied to the JPMorgan attack, which compromised information in 83 million customer accounts and was the largest theft of customer data from an American financial institution.
Shalon, 31, and Orenstein, 40, are Israeli citizens who were arrested in July. Aaron, 31, is a U.S. citizen who has lived in Moscow and Tel Aviv. Another defendant, Anthony Murgio, was also charged in the bitcoin exchange.
The charges depict Shalon as the leader of the group.
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