SpaceX engineer moonlighted by trading personal information on the darknet
The US Department of Justice said Thursday that SpaceX engineer James Roland Jones has pleaded guilty to darknet insider trading charges. He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
The criminal case against Jones of Hermosa Beach, California, was opened following an FBI investigation in 2017. Although Jones has been identified as a SpaceX engineer, the ministry did not clarify if he currently works for an aerospace company or worked for it at the time of the crime.
According to the agency, Jones under the nickname MillionaireMike between 2016 and 2017. bought and sold personal information on the darknet, including names, addresses, dates of birth, and employees’ social security numbers.
In April 2017, an undercover FBI officer provided Jones with “alleged inside information related to a publicly traded” company. “From April 18, 2017, to May 4, 2017, Jones and the conspirator (his name has not been identified) conducted many securities transactions based on this alleged inside information,” the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
In turn, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Jones of “committing a fraudulent scheme to trade” insider tips “on the darknet in exchange for bitcoins, which is a violation of federal securities law. According to the SEC, Jones earned $ 27,000 thanks to the fraud.
However, the SEC did not mention SpaceX, so it can be assumed that the information it offered did not concern the company. The SEC said this was the first time it has taken enforcement action about securities law violations connected with transactions on the darknet.
“This case shows that the SEC can and will prosecute securities lawbreakers wherever they operate, even on the dark web,” David Peavler, director of the SEC’s Fort Worth regional office, said in a statement.
