Prosecutors have agreed to comply with a U.S extradition warrant on Vladislav Khalupsky, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko wrote on Facebook on Aug.5. Khalupsky is suspected of financial fraud and involvement in laundering $30 million, Lutsenko said.
While Ukrainian law forbids extradition of its citizens, Larisa Saragan, Lutsenko’s spokesperson, said Khalupsky remains a U.S. citizen despite his application for a Ukrainian passport.
Khalupsky was detained in Odesa in February. The Malynovskiy District Court of Odesa placed Khalupskiy under night house arrest on April 4, Saragan wrote.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York has reported Khalupsky, 47, and eight of his allies were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, and money laundering conspiracy in 2015. Only five out of nine were arrested in 2015.
In October 2016, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York issued an international arrest warrant for Khalupsky, who was hiding in Ukraine during the investigation.
According to the U.S Federal Bureau of Investigation statement, between February 2010 and August 2015, two hackers based in Ukraine hacked the computer networks of Marketwired L.P., PR Newswire Association LLC (PRN), and Business Wire financial and stock news resources and stole press releases about upcoming announcements by public companies concerning earnings, gross margins, revenues, and other confidential and material financial information.
The hackers shared the stolen press releases with Khalupsky and several other traders using overseas computer servers that they controlled.
After he was arrested in Ukraine, Khalupsky asked for Ukrainian citizenship. And if his demand was satisfied, Ukraine wouldn’t be able to extradite him, Saragan wrote on Facebook. He even claimed his family had origins in Odesa, hoping it would help him to get Ukrainian passport.
“As soon as he understood, he wouldn’t escape from the arrest in Ukraine, he rushed to the U.S consulate and asked to help him to move out of Ukraine,” Yevhen Yenin, the deputy prosecutor general said on Aug. 4. “I guess he forgot that he applied for political asylum in Ukraine earlier. So he had to cancel his request.”
