Scammers gave out fakes about stocks on the Moscow Stock Exchange for insider information

Speculators detained by the FSB for fraud on the Moscow Stock Exchange gave out fake information about trading for insider information in their Telegram channels. Alexander Nadsadny, a correspondent for Izvestia, told the details of the case on April 13.

Operatives from three law enforcement agencies — the FSB, the Interior Ministry, and the Investigative Committee — did a painstaking job to apprehend the three criminal talents.

"In the course of the work of the FSB and the Bank of Russia, the facts of market manipulation at organized auctions of the Moscow Stock Exchange with securities of a wide range of issuers were revealed," the FSB official said.

The evidence included electronic media, management and administration tools for Telegram channels, which the detainees positioned as reputable financial resources useful for players in the securities market.

"Someone who has information can earn millions by selling or buying the right shares on time. The main value is to know in advance, before it is written about in the news feeds," Nadsadny said.

It was the analysts with insider information who posed as scammers, and the news was simply invented by themselves and published on their resources.

"There was an artificial rush to buy or sell securities, which led to significant price changes. As a result, the channel's administrators received illegal income: they opened a position in securities before the publication of the analysis, and closed it when investor activity reached the proper level," the FSB officer explained.

The work in the opposite direction brought in millions. While market participants trusted the scammers and were led to fake, they bought or sold shares, depending on the market conditions. Such illegal actions affected the value of securities and shares of state-owned companies.

"People are starting to tell everyone that these securities are going to increase dramatically in price for some reason. The reason may be the most banal or the most fantastic — it doesn't matter. The main thing is for people to believe in it," said Andrey Emelin, Chairman of the National Financial Market Council.

The securities market is fluid and dependent on a huge number of factors: domestic political events, economic changes in a particular company, and, of course, geopolitics. Information manipulation by fraudsters affects the stock price and the good name of companies.

"This is very dangerous because it affects the issuer's business reputation in one way or another, and in these cases the issuer is not only defending its good name, but even suing," said Andrei Barkhota, PhD in Economics, financial expert, independent economist.

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In February, 732.9 thousand people signed deals on non-working days.

Earlier that day, the Investigative Committee (IC) announced the initiation of a criminal case against an organized group from PFL Advisors, which manipulated the stock market on the Moscow Stock Exchange. According to the investigation, in 2023-2024, the company's traders, together with other participants, systematically conducted transactions with shares and depositary receipts of 19 large Russian companies. As indicated in the FSB, the fraudsters traded insiders in the Telegram channels "Marketdengivlast | RDV", "Wolf from the Moscow Stock Exchange" and "Signals of the Russian Securities Exchange".

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