By Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK, Sept 17 (Reuters) - A hedge fund manager in Moscowclaims he never possessed or traded on inside information froman alleged scheme to hack into networks that distributecorporate news releases, according to a court filing lateWednesday.
David Amaryan, 35, was among more than 30 defendantscharged by U.S. authorities last month over the alleged theft ofmore than 150,000 press releases from Business Wire, Marketwiredand PR Newswire before the news became public.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the schemeallegedly resulted in more than $100 million of illegal profitover a roughly five-year period.
"I have never possessed or traded on material, nonpublicinformation obtained through illicit or unlawful means," Amaryansaid in court papers filed in New Jersey federal court. "Norhave I ever directed anyone working for me to obtain or to tradeon such information."
Amaryan runs Moscow and London-based investment managementfirms Copperstone Alpha Fund, Copperstone Capital and OceanPrime Inc. and Intertrade Pacific SA.
He is seeking dismissal of the civil charges against himand his companies and for the court to free up millions ofdollars of frozen assets.
The companies' trades were based on "sophisticated hedgefund analysis, at times ahead of earnings announcements, and attimes losing money," the court papers say.
A native Armenian who lives in Moscow, Amaryan graduatedfrom Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, according to his courtfiling. He worked in the United States at AllianceBernsteinL.P., before moving to Russia in 2003 and working for Citigroupfor two years. He is currently on a leave of absence from theMBA program at the University of Chicago Booth School ofBusiness.
Two other defendants, Jaspen Capital Partners Ltd and ChiefExecutive Andriy Supranonok, both from Kiev, Ukraine, agreed topay $30 million to settle the SEC charges against them, theregulator said on Monday.
Authorities said traders would give hackers "shopping lists"of press releases they wanted to see in advance, and then maketrades based on them.
Business Wire is a unit of Warren Buffett's BerkshireHathaway Inc, and PR Newswire is a unit of Britain'sUBM Plc.
The case is SEC v Dubovoy et al, U.S. District Court,District of New Jersey, No. 15-06076. (Reporting By Karen Freifeld; Editing by Andrew Hay)
