Sneak Peek: CNBC’s “The Crimes of Putin’s Trader”
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Hello, date line fans, we've got a brand new true crime thriller for you. Features a multi million dollar criminal enterprise, the FBI agent who took IT on, and even a couple of russian and american spies, m. Cnbc, senior washington, ton correspond and aim java here with a special sneak peek of my limited podcast series, the crimes of put in strate. Take a listen and be sure to follow the crimes of put in strate wherever. Get your podcast for r episodes right now.

This is the sound of the private jet runway, a tiny seon airport high. The swiss s. Seon is the gateway to the fame ski resort of sermon, with its five star hotels, luxury shopping at high and social scene.

Even in a private jet, though you can only get so close to the snow capped mountains, con is still an hours drive from the chair. So the truly wealthy take a short walk across the tarmac and bought helicopters to take them directly to the slopes. And on march twenty first twenty twenty one, and up in coming, Young russian oligarch and his wife touched down here in a charter private jet on their way to the slopes. It's a wedding anniversary celebration. And at that moment, the oligarch is that the absolute height of his powers.

He's personable. He smiles a lot. He's engaging. He's charismatic. That's how he was so successful in business. He's devoted to his family.

He's built a fabulously successful company. He's cultivated connections at the highest levels of the russian government. And he works for the office of the russian president, vlad m.

mr. putin. But what the oligarch doesn't know is that U. S. Law enforcement has been monitor the flight since IT left moscow, and they're planning to charge him with crimes that go to the heart of the american financial system.

It's a breath less moment. You're literally holding your breath um to see how this is gna play out. American law .

enforcement believes the oligarch is involved in a brazen ninety three million dollar insider trading scheme, and the victims are investors in iconic american companies, including names on the cutting edge of the U. S. Economy like tesla, snapshot and roku. At stake is the very integrity of american capital markets.

We knew that somebody was up to know good, and we knew that the scale of IT was pretty big because IT was happening quarter after quarter in stock after stock.

It's all part of the dangerous underground of the global financial system. In this podcast, we're going to take you inside the Operation to track down and try to capture this russian oligarch along the way. You'll meet the FBI agent who let the investigation and the prosecutors who worked alongside them.

We've spent months working to land interviews with all the key players, but the most difficult interview of them all was with a former russian will introduce him to you later in the series. He's defector who now lives in the united states under an assumed name. I got a cell phone number from a very well placed U.

S. Intelligence source. And after his security team checked me out to verify, I was who I said I was. We SAT down with his russian spy, had a location inside the united states, which we agreed not to disclose.

He's one of the very few people in the world who can give us the russian perspective on this story to protect him from retribution from the russian government. We're not going to use his name. We've replaced his voice and someone else is reading the transcript t of our conversation.

It's a war right now happening between the russia and the west, finances and banks. And financial sector itself is just one of the battle fields.

When I heard what he has to say, IT changed everything about how I see this story. I am in jewels from cnbc, and this is the crimes of put in strata. The man at the center of the story is the Young russian oligarch on that private jet heading to the swiss I resort.

His name is latest lave collision. His friends called him bad collusion is a well connected business man who owns a cyber security firm in moscow called m thirteen. But the firm is a front.

It's not doing what Normal cyber security companies do behind the scenes conclusions. Employees aren't always helping companies to protect their data, sometimes stealing IT. They found a sneaky way to obtain american financial information before its public and trade in the stock market ahead of the news.

And they're making a fortune by pillaging american investors on wall street. And collusion wants to make a whole lot of money inside the Operation. And thirteenth computer screens are flowing with stolen stock market information.

Collisional team pours over american corporation reports before the financial world can see them. At one point they're focused on on tesla, the election c car company m thirteen hackers steel tesla draft earnings release and seeing the results they could buy shares in advance. Politicians sends a text to two of the investors in the scheme, giving them a heads up.

pay attention to shares of tea now and tomorrow after sixteen, thirty and on how much they go up.

After the market closes, test the reports, its earnings protest .

were singing a pop in the after our session and more than twelve .

cent we but of course, pollution knows what's coming. It's a monster number. More than six point eight billion dollars in revenue CEO.

Elon musk tells investors on a conference call that IT was an incredibly historic quarter. Wall street is dazed. It's much Better news than traders expected and tesla shares sore.

In the second quarter of twenty nine, the third team steals documents showing that sneaker company sketchers is going to surprise the market with positive news. The company was going to beat earnings by about fifteen cents per share. Thirteen traders buy stock and sketchers, betting that the Price will go up.

Taking a look at sketchers, up a point seven percent there. The whole group .

ends up making more than a million dollars on that single trade.

And they're making millions of dollars just sitting at their desks, breaking into these american companies, stealing information day after day after day and just trading.

IT gets even Better with cosmetics company ultra beauty, and thirteen stolen documents showed the earnings were a miss. And what's worse for shareholders, the companies updated its financial guide downward, the m thirteen ganging shorts, the stock bedding, it's going to go down thinking is the right word. Alto beauty shares down twenty percent .

on a rough second .

quarter report. They're altis Price plumaged by thirty percent when that news came out for. And thirteen is great news. The gangs makes almost two million dollars overnight on a single trade.

They gleeful text details of how much they and their investors are making pollution, reports that one investor has already made profits of close to one million dollars, nearly tripling his investment. A second investor had made profits of close to seven hundred thousand dollars, nearly doubling his money. conclusion.

They don't even ask why so anymore.

The money conclusion makes from the stolen financial information is literally piling up. He has a safe in which he stashes stacks of hundred dollar bills, gradually filling IT until at one point, IT holds three million dollars in cash. But collusion was wealthy before he turned his Operation criminal. Here's federal prosecutor Stephen Frank, who investigated the case.

He was a lot like the kind of people that we prosecute for White collar crime here in the united states every day. We don't really need to turn to White color crime in order to be successful because they already are successful. He was wealthy.

He, you know, he had a very nice house. He had very nice cars. He had a country house. But he wanted more, uh, like so many of our defendants do. And he found a way to get access to easy money, and he took IT .

FBI special agent, David hit cock agrees the .

of closure was a successful business man before he been engaging in the inter trading.

So if he's already wealthy, means a rich guy lives in moscow. Why do this?

I think the same way individuals here in the united states commit crime, that's financially motivated. great.

Straight up.

That was my takeaway.

Collusion, who was born in one thousand nine hundred and eighty, wasn't always rich. He grew up poor, and he had a hassle to get ahead. He's the son of a single teen mother, and he's never known his father.

He started working at age thirteen to help lift his family out of poverty, but his brain power took him far, graduating from the moscow academy of economics and law and going on to get a masters degree in management by the time he opens the cybersecurity company. And thirteen, he's successful and well loved by his employees. His team at m.

Thirteen is a social group. There are birthday parties with hats, cake and singing. 你。 And rooftop barbecues with the gangs from the office. Several and thirteen staff members say inclusion helps them get access to top hospitals in moscow when they are a family member are sick by this time. Collusion is also a family man.

He married his second wife, gena, and an exclusive country club outside moscow, posing for pictures with his new bride, driving a convertible porch and embracing under a heavily laden trellis of roses. The couple produces an extensive highlight video of the wedding, features scenes of collusion, jogging and swimming, and his wife drinking champagne and lying on an door canopy bed covered in flowers. It's all set to a blissful soundtrack in the video.

A youthful collusion has Brown hair come to the side, deep Brown eyes and a dimple chin. He's just hitting that stage of life where prosperous men start to get a little stocky and he's got the slaves tinge of grey coming in at his temples between these two marriages. Conclusion is the father of five children.

The company and the family are both fuelled by collusions spectacular success in business, but the secret to that success is not in his technical skills. In fact, conclusion doesn't have any specialized computer skills at all. What he does have our contacts.

He was a well connected guy, and he was enormously successful.

Collusion knows highly placed people in the russian intelligence and defense worlds. In june of twenty twenty, inclusion received the russian metal of honor with documentation signed by vlad amie putin himself. He is also connected to the russian intelligence services, the F, S, B, which is the successor to the notorious called war intelligence agency.

The K, G, B collusion even received an award from the fsb. The inscription expresses sincere gratitude to you for the productive and effective collaboration and ensuring security of the russian federation in the information sphere. IT, signed by the deputy director of the fsb.

Now we don't know exactly what collusion did to earn this spying award, but we do know collusion is a guy who's hanging around some seriously high powered spies at some point along the way. Could you should makes his most important contacts yet? He connects with a Young computer hacker named ivan ermakov, who becomes an employee of inclusions, firm and thirteen.

Very quickly, the two men strike up a business partnership and something of a romance. Suddenly, business and life are good. Here's prosecutor south costa.

One of the things that was curious about the case was the interrelationship between collusion and ermakov. They were thick as Steves very quickly for two men who really didn't have much contact with each other before twenty eighteen.

Once their Operation is up and running there in near constant contact, they go out drinking and they saw IT together naked. The FBI finds videos, s and pictures on their devices showing the two men at fancy dinners in one ermakov is that a candle IT restaurant holding his knife and fork dramatically over an impossibly large hunk of meat. In another, they pose with collusions wife and eric hobs girlfriend.

The setting appears to be a high end cocktail party. Inclusion is in a tailor dress shirt and slack with an expensive looking watch on his left wrist. His wife is in a poke dot address a glass of wine in her right hand.

Ermakov wears jeans and a sweater, and he has a proud grin on his face as his girlfriend hooks are elbow through his ARM. The photo radiates confidence and elegance. We see more casual images to arma v working on his golf swing at a driving range. And when the soccer world cup comes to russia, it's a point of pride for vlad ameer putin regime and a huge global event. They're caught up in the excitement .

as players score .

goal conclusion.

and its crew are all in on the games. The images captured by the FBI show them eating, drinking, celebrating and showing off the russian colors with temporary tattoos of the russian flag painted on their cheeks. The oligarch and the hacker also share fund for helicopter scheming, and videos show them sway and exhausted, looking happy inside a chopper.

The buddies shot for expensive things. Collusion buys a lucky y apartment for a moca and buy himself a yet worth almost four million dollars called the 7k from a shipyard in cyprus。 At one point, decision sends a text to ermakov telling him how much he enjoys being with him. These are voice actors reading each man's tax on.

We spend a lot of time together. I feel good and come the fact that we can walk home together and have a beer or play golf, or simply send everyone to have hell knowing that you are close.

Arma t is clue about his outburst of emotion.

This truly sounds like a nice .

declaration of love.

like a declaration ation of love to a girl.

I ask prosecutor Stephen Frank about this IT sounds like a romance.

IT was definitely a proms between those two.

Thank you all for listening to this preview of the crimes of putin's trader. If you want to find out what happens next, you can get the full episode right now. Follow and listen to the crimes of put in strate wherever you get your podcasts.