Compliancex

Securities regulators charged a Latvian trader with reaping more than $850,000 in illegal profits by hacking into online brokerage accounts and manipulating more than 100 securities.

In a complaint filed in federal court in San Francisco on Thursday, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Igors Nagaicevs broke into accounts at large U.S. brokerages and drove up stock prices by making unauthorized purchases and sales.

The SEC complaint gave Nagaicevs’ address in Jurmala, Latvia, and said he was 34 years old but gave no further information on his current whereabouts. The SEC wants him to pay an unspecified amount in disgorgement and penalties.

The SEC also took administrative enforcement action on Thursday against four electronic trading firms and eight executives, saying they all enabled Nagaicevs’s scheme by giving him “anonymous and unfiltered access” to the U.S. market.

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Sarah N. Lynch, Reuters, January 26, 2012