Facing decades behind bars, the man behind now-shuttered online casino operators Affactive and Revenuejet has reportedly agreed a plea deal with federal law enforcement officials in the United States that will see him pay a fine of $403 million.
According to a report from Israeli newspaper Calcalist, the agreement means that Gery Shalon, who is estimated to have assets valued at around $2 billion, has now resolved a trio of criminal cases along with an associated civil lawsuit relating to charges of conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud and computer hacking.
The newspaper reported that 33-year-old Shalon was arrested in 2015 amid accusations that he and his associates had hacked into the computer network of multi-national banking and financial services firm JPMorgan Chase and Company in order to steal customer information. It was alleged that the Russia-born businessman’s illicit enterprise then utilized this data from ten million households and seven million businesses to spam potential investors with “pump and dump” penny stock schemes before laundering any proceeds through his firms’ online casinos and Coin.mx Bitcoin exchange.
Calcalist reported that Shalon, who is also a citizen of Israel, had been awaiting trial in a Manhattan federal prison after being extradited last year and was additionally accused of using Coin.mx to launder funds paid as a result of ransomware attacks. The plea deal with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission is to moreover require him to detail any assets accumulated over recent years as a result of his foreign exchange and gambling businesses.
Shalon was one of five men charged in relation to the JPMorgan Chase and Company hack with fellow Coin.mx employee Anthony Murgio recently sentenced to 66 months in prison for his part in laundering funds through the Bitcoin exchange. Alleged co-conspirator Joshua Aaron turned himself into authorities a few months ago after initially evading capture by fleeing to Russia while fellow Israeli national Ziv Orenstein pled not guilty a year ago.
