The Department of Justice, DoJ, and Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, has reportedly arrested the culprit identified as “The Bull” on a typical dark web marketplace that has been barred for years now. Apostolos Trovias was recently caught through the contents he posted for sale on the dark web as The Bull.
Remember, it has been four years since the AlphaBay shutdown, while feds are relentless in apprehending criminals that have been trading in this unsolicited marketplace. Note that, the dark web forum is a platform based on the anonymity of the software, whereby users And their activities are highly discreet.
The enforcement agencies went after Apostolos after he allegedly sold and sought potential customers willing to pay for “insider trading information.” The Greek national representative was reportedly caught in the action — unlike other kinds of crime like drug trafficking that requires an existing or a previous act to warrant an arrest.
Apostolos was seen on AlphaBay, and other dark web forums, including Nightmare Market, and Dream Markets — the Greek reportedly offered to sell sold stock tips and completed other transactions accepting bitcoin as payment.
Unknown to Apostolos, his customers were undercover agents assigned by the IRS and the FBI — after his indictment, his transaction of 2017 was revealed that he traded with these federal agents — he sold pre-release information from earnings for bitcoins. The federal agent made it worth noting that he had initiated transactions on two different occasions with the Bull.
According to the IRS complaint pdf sent to the feds: “Between in or about December 2016, when he registered for the site, and in or about July 2017, when AlphaBay ceased operations, APOSTOLOS TROVIAS, a/k/a “The Bull,” the defendant, offered for sale, in, among other places, the “Fraud > Other> Other “ category on AlphaBay, stock tips that were based on non-public inside information about certain securities issuers and which could be purchased individually, on a weekly basis, or on a monthly basis for prices ranging from approximately $29.95 per tip to approximately $329.95 for a monthly subscription for tips based on non-public inside information.”
In the wake of the pandemic, Apostolos’s secrets were revealed as he attempted to own his dark web marketplace since the previous forum he has been trading with kept shutting down in line with government orders. After he was arrested in Peru, the DoJ intends to jail the Greek on the alleged counts of security fraud and money laundering — Apostolos is expected to spend nothing less than 50 years in jail.
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