He was young, rich and on the rise in Moscow. But when up-and-coming Russian oligarch Vladislav Klyushin boarded a private jet for a luxury ski vacation in the Swiss Alps, he had no idea that all of it was about to come crashing down. Klyushin was the owner of a cybersecurity company in Moscow called M-13, but the firm was secretly a front for a computer hacking and insider trading operation that plagued Wall Street for years, and generated more than $90 million in illicit profits for Klyushin’s criminal gang. Now, with exclusive access to the FBI investigators and Department of Justice prosecutors who chased Klysuhin around the globe, CNBC’s Eamon Javers can reveal the shocking details of the spectacular rise and fall of this audacious criminal enterprise. We learn about their insider trading in stocks of American companies including Tesla and other high-tech firms, and we see the crooks’ own text messages, which give a revealing look at the bromance between the oligarch and a veteran Russian intelligence hacker at the center of the crime ring. And in an exclusive interview, Javers sits down with a former Russian spy — an officer of the Russian FSB intelligence agency — who explains why all of this, and more, was so important to Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
And in a turn of events, the White House just announced a massive, multinational prisoner swap between the U.S., Russia and other nations. As part of the historic deal, the Russian government released high-profile Americans held in captivity there, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who had been in a Russian prison for more than a year.
Also included in the trade were a number of Russians who had been arrested for various crimes and held in prisons in the U.S. and other countries. Klyushin was one of the prisoners released. Watch “Putin’s Trader” for the full story.
It took our investigative team countless hours to unravel the mysteries of “Putin’s Trader”—chasing down sources, going deep into a criminal web spun by those at the highest levels of global power. Join CNBC’s Eamon Javers in every step of this gripping journey by following and listening to the limited podcast series “The Crimes of Putin’s Trader”. It’s the expanded universe of this real-life thriller, featuring exclusive spy interviews and behind-the-scenes reporting. You can find “The Crimes of Putin’s Trader” podcast wherever you get your podcasts or click here and be the first to get notified about new episodes: https://cnbc.com/putinstrader
Chapters:
2:03 The case agents
7:00 The Moscow connection
12:07 A bromance
17:58 ‘We suck’
24:19 ‘$420. Funding secured’
32:49 The defector
Reported by: Eamon Javers
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Edited by: Erin Black
Produced by: Paige Tortorelli, Bria Cousins
Shot by: Shawn Baldwin, Erin Black, Magdalena Petrova, Carlos Waters, Tasia Jensen, Lukas Linder
Animations: Christina Locopo, Jason Reginato
Senior Production Manager: Kathy Mavrikakis
Executive Producer: Kamelia Angelova
Voice Actors: Filip Quintus, Oleg Frish
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Putin’s Trader — How Rich Russian Hackers Stole Millions from U.S. Investors | CNBC Documentary
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