In an ongoing case overseen by the SEC's Cyber and Emerging Technologies Unit and Market Abuse Unit, the SEC charged Russian national Dmitrii Yevgenyevich Kushnarev for his role in a multi-year fraudulent scheme in which hundreds of U.S. retail brokerage accounts were hacked and improperly used to manipulate the price and trading volume of hundreds of thinly-traded equity securities listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), NASDAQ, or OTC Markets. Kushnarev is alleged to have used over 20 fake identities to open over 100 foreign and domestic bank and brokerage accounts, and to have repeatedly used his brokerage accounts to trade profitably in securities that were simultaneously being manipulated by hackers through forced trades in the compromised U.S. brokerage accounts that drove up pricings and trading volume. Kushnarev's trading scheme further involved selling out-of-the-money call and put options, placing artificially high bids for the options. Kushnarev is alleged to have generated approximately $31 million in gross proceeds from his trades and approximately $1.5 million in net profits from the scheme. The SEC worked collaboratively with FINRA, criminal authorities, and multiple foreign securities regulators on the investigation and has issued investor alerts through its Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, informing investors how to protect online investment accounts from fraud.