Bloomberg Computers Hacked Into
N E W Y O R K, Aug. 15, 2000 -- Two men from Kazakstan were arrested in London on charges that they tried to extort $200,000 from Bloomberg LP after breaking into the company’s computer system, authorities saidMonday.
Federal prosecutors and the FBI said Michael Bloomberg, founderof the financial news and information company, played a centralrole in capturing the men.
Oleg Zezov, 27, who worked for a company that produced databaseservices for Bloomberg, and Igor Yarimaka, 37, were arrested afterBloomberg appeared to comply with their monetary demands to learnhow they had gained access to the company’s computer system,authorities said in a statement.
The Sting
Bloomberg convinced the pair to meet him in London after Zezovsent him e-mail messages and demanded Bloomberg deposit $200,000into an offshore account, authorities said.
Bloomberg, accompanied by two London Metropolitan policeofficers — one posing as a company executive and the other servingas a translator — met the men Thursday in London, they said.
The suspects allegedly repeated their demands at the meeting andwere arrested afterward. They were held without bail afterappearing Friday before a British magistrate in London.
Prosecutors said they did not know if the men had lawyers.
But in court documents, Yarimaka, who said he was a formerprosecutor in Kazakstan, said they had not committed any crimes butwere trying to get paid for showing that Bloomberg’s computersecurity system was inept.
In a statement, the New York-based company said investigatorshad gathered information over “many months with Bloomberg’sassistance.”
Bloomberg: Not Unusually Vulnerable
Bloomberg LP spokeswoman Chris Taylor declined to comment beyondthe statement, except to reassure customers that the pair’s claimto have broken into its system did not mean the company wasunusually vulnerable to sabotage.
Barry W. Mawn, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s NewYork office, said the participation of Michael Bloomberg was anexample of how U.S. businesses and international law enforcementpartners could fight “21st century crime.”
“This investigation and these charges should dispel the notionthat using a computer to commit criminal acts literally a worldaway from one’s victim provides a zone of safety from lawenforcement scrutiny,” said Mawn.
Prosecutors said they will seek to extradite the pair to theUnited States, where charges in a criminal complaint carrypotential penalties of more than 20 years in prison and hundreds ofthousands of dollars in fines.