Accused J.P. Morgan Hacker Declined Russian Asylum Offer
December 15 2016 - 1:55PM
Dow Jones News
By Nicole Hong
The Russian government offered asylum to a U.S. citizen charged
with orchestrating the hack into J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and
several other companies, his lawyer said Thursday.
The defendant, 32-year-old Joshua Aaron, made his first U.S.
court appearance this week after living as a fugitive in Russia for
more than a year. He arrived in the U.S. on Wednesday and pleaded
not guilty in Manhattan federal court.
Mr. Aaron was indicted in November 2015 along with two Israeli
citizens. They were accused of stealing data on more than 100
million people from a dozen companies' computers, including J.P.
Morgan, E*Trade Financial Corp. and Dow Jones & Co., the parent
company of The Wall Street Journal. The hack into J.P. Morgan was
believed to be the largest data breach of a U.S. financial
institution.
When the indictment was publicly announced last year, Mr. Aaron
had been living in Russia, which doesn't have an extradition treaty
with the U.S.
The two Israelis, Gery Shalon and Ziv Orenstein, were extradited
to the U.S. earlier this year. They have pleaded not guilty.
After a court hearing Thursday, defense lawyer Benjamin Brafman
said Mr. Aaron voluntarily wanted to return to the U.S. and turned
down an offer of asylum from the Russian government. The offer came
after Mr. Aaron had applied for asylum, then withdrew his
application following consultation with U.S. lawyers, according to
Mr. Brafman.
Mr. Aaron was being detained in Russia on a visa violation, and
the State Department spent several months fighting with Russian
authorities to bring him back, Mr. Brafman said. A representative
for the State Department didn't immediately return a request for
comment.
"Someone in Russia was trying to keep him there," Mr. Brafman
said, declining to discuss why Mr. Aaron was in Russia in the first
place.
Whether Russia would ever release Mr. Aaron was a source of
speculation for months.
His arrival in the U.S. came two days after President-elect
Donald Trump named Rex Tillerson as his Secretary of State, the
chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp. who has long done business in
Russia and has ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The indictment alleges Mr. Aaron played a key role in the
computer hacks by identifying companies and providing login
credentials to hackers. Prosecutors say the three men used
information stolen from the companies to facilitate a broader
network of criminal activity, including illegal online casinos and
an unlicensed bitcoin exchange.
Write to Nicole Hong at nicole.hong@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 15, 2016 13:40 ET (18:40 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
E TRADE Financial (NASDAQ:ETFC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
E TRADE Financial (NASDAQ:ETFC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024