How does a Baptist preacher praise the Lord during the day and steal millions of dollars during the night? It's easy: he's Russyan. He was busted by the F.B.I. as part of a scheme that netted him over $17 millions using inside information that was hacked from corporate documents ahead of public announcements. Vitaly worked at Morgan Stanley, the Wall St. firm noted for its proclivities for illegal financial manipulations, illegal banking operations, and general financial system irregularities that caused so much grief for investors during the banking crisis in 2008-09.
Vitaly thought that he was smarter than the F.B.I. and that nobody would suspect a Baptist preacher of stealing money from various corporations.
Wrong.
The F.B.I. loves catching such holier-than-thou types-it makes such good press, and even helps to improve the image of the Federal organization. Vitaly has been hanging around in the USA for quite a few years-he's 50 years old and has been educated here and has worked here since the collapse of the old USSR. He forgot to recall that the USA is fundamentally different than anything Ruusyan: we have laws and we enforce them. Hmmmm. Bail was set at about $2million. He is considered a flight risk by the judge. Where would he go: Belarus? Uzbekistan? Georgia? Maybe he'll go to Fort Leavenworth with the Guantanamo jihadists.
Maybe his lawyers will argue that the Ukrainian hackers who sent him the information were bible students looking for redemption? Maybe Vitaly was trying to save their souls.
The trial will prove interesting.
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