SEC Charges TheBull with Selling "Insider Trading Tips" on the Dark Web

The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Apostolos Trovias, a Greek national, with perpetrating a fraudulent scheme to sell what he called "insider trading tips" on the Dark Web. The Dark Web, which facilitates anonymity by obscuring users’ identities, allows users to purchase and sell illegal products and services, and in this case, insider trading tips. According to the SEC's complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, from at least December 2016 through early 2021, Trovias—operating under the pseudonym "TheBull"—engaged in a deceptive scheme to offer and sell so-called "insider trading tips" on Dark Web marketplaces to purchasers whom Trovias offered an unfair advantage for trading securities in the public markets.