SEC v. Oleksandr Ieremenko et al. (hack to trade, 2019)

Judgment entered

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 4, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

Report an error in this record (sec-lr-24381-hack-to-trade-2019) by email

In January 2019 the SEC sued a Ukrainian hacker and eight others, alleging they traded on earnings results taken from the SEC's EDGAR system. By 29 July 2021 the court had entered a default judgment against the alleged hacker Oleksandr Ieremenko (penalty $12,405,045) and Andrey Sarafanov ($3,283,305), and the other traders had settled. The summed penalties in the SEC's releases are about $16.3 million.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$16.3m

Disgorgement

$314k

Prejudgment interest

$37.2k

Total relief

$16.6m

Alleged gain

$4.1m

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

the Securities and Exchange Commission filed this matter on January 15, 2019; the release announcing it is dated January 17, 2019 (release LR-24381). The respondents named are Oleksandr Ieremenko and 8 others (7 individuals, 2 entities). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey.

This library tags the matter as hack to trade, based on the conduct the regulator describes. Each tag links to a page explaining how that technique works, what statute it engages, and what penalties comparable actions have attracted. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

The release references a parallel criminal proceeding. Where a criminal case exists, the civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

Outcome. Three SEC releases show how the defendants left the case. In April 2020 the SEC announced settlements with Kwon (disgorgement $165,474 and interest $16,254, with any penalty left for the court to decide) and Sabodakha (disgorgement $148,804, interest $20,945 and a penalty of $148,804). In November 2020 it announced settlements with Cho (penalty $175,000) and with Olefir and Capyield (joint penalty $250,000), all with injunctions, each subject to court approval. In a July 2021 release it reported that on 29 July 2021 the court entered a default judgment against Ieremenko and Sarafanov, who never answered the complaint, enjoining them and imposing penalties of $12,405,045 and $3,283,305. The money fields here are sums of the figures in those releases, not a single court order. What the releases do not show is the penalty, if any, later set for Kwon, the date each settlement was approved, or the final disposition of the claims against Vorochek, Spirit Trade and the relief defendant, which the SEC said it would dismiss or which are not addressed. The settling defendants neither admitted nor denied the allegations; the default judgment is not a finding after trial.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Hack to trade — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2019-01-15 Complaint filed (D.N.J., No. 2:19-cv-00505)
2. 2020-04-09 SEC announces settlements with traders David Kwon and Igor Sabodakha (subject to court approval)
3. 2020-11-05 SEC announces settlements with Sungjin Cho, Ivan Olefir and Capyield Systems (subject to court approval)
4. 2021-07-29 Default judgment entered against Ieremenko and Sarafanov

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• SEC litigation release
• SEC litigation release 24793 (Kwon, Sabodakha)
• SEC litigation release 24956 (Cho, Olefir, Capyield)
• SEC litigation release 25158 (default judgment)

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Same matter

The library links these 3 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 20, 2026. submit a correction.